Tonight – July 29, 2016 – and in the coming nights, treat yourself to one of nature’s spectacles. Every year, people look forward to the August Perseid meteor shower. And it’s wonderful, with regular rates of about 60 meteors per hour and with a possibility of a Perseid outburst in 2016. But there’s another meteor shower going on around now, too. It’s the Delta Aquarid shower, whose radiant point is shown on the chart above.

The Delta Aquarids don’t have as definite a peak as the Perseids. This shower is now producing a steady supply of meteors, which you can see in dark skies this weekend and in the coming weeks.

The Delta Aquarid shower reaches its nominal peak every year in late July. They’ll still be flying when the Perseids peak in August.

The moon is waning towards the new phase right now. And the Perseids are now rising to a peak. That makes late July and the first few weeks of August, in the hours before dawn, a good time to watch meteors.

The Perseid shower is expected to produce the greatest number of meteors on the night of August 11-12, 2016. It’s on that night that you might see the Perseid outburst, with perhaps 200 meteors per hour at the peak.

But you don’t need to see that many to enjoy watching meteors. And the Perseids are known to rise to a peak gradually, so they’ll be increasing in numbers every night over the coming weeks. Plus the Delta Aquarids will be raining down steadily, night after night.

So … when exactly should you watch, over the coming weeks? Remember three things.

First, meteor showers tend to be best after midnight, with predawn often an optimum time to watch.

Second, in 2016, new moon comes on August 2 and a first quarter moon on August 10. A first quarter moon sets around midnight (1 a.m. Daylight Time). After first quarter, the moon will continue to wax larger and set later. It’ll begin washing the predawn sky with its light by around mid-August, but – on the peak mornings of the Perseid shower – you’ll still be able to watch in the optimum hours before dawn.

Third, there’s a Perseid outburst predicted for this year. It’s predicted for the night of August 11-12 (evening of August 11, morning of August 12) and expected to last half a day. The times of the predictions vary from astronomer to astronomer. So on the night of August 11-12, you might want to watch all night … moon or no moon. Just hope the outburst comes for you when the moon is down!

Yes, you can watch from the South Hemisphere, too! The Delta Aquarids, especially, are a good shower for you. The Delta Aquarids fall more abundantly in the Southern Hemisphere, featuring perhaps 15 Delta Aquarid meteors per hour in an inky dark sky. All around the world, the radiant of the shower climbs highest up for the night around 2 to 3 a.m. local time (3 to 4 a.m. local Daylight Time), but the radiant soars way higher in the Southern Hemisphere than at comparable latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere.

Bottom line: You won’t see as many meteors in late July and early August as you will at the Perseid meteor shower’s peak dates on the mornings of August 11, 12 and 13. Even so, you might see a decent sprinkling of meteors during the final weekend of July 2016!