3 Meteor Showers Now Active Over RI Skies: How To Watch

Lying outside on a warm night and looking up at the sky for a meteor is one of the simplest pleasures of summer, and Rhode Island residents will have several chances to see shooting stars this month.

The highly anticipated Perseid meteor shower started Monday. It overlaps with two other lesser meteor showers, the Alpha Capricornids, which are also underway, and the Southern Delta Aquariids, which started Saturday.

The long-running Perseids, which end Sept. 1, don’t peak until Aug. 11-13
Peak activity for the other two meteor showers is expected between July 29-31.

If you’re planning ahead, keep in mind that meteor showers are always best viewed from dark skies. Also, these showers all peak in the pre-dawn hours, so you may want to head away from city lights for an overnight camping trip to one of Rhode Island’s state parks.

Some places to consider in Rhode Island are:

• Beavertail State Park in Jamestown
• Brenton Point State Park in Newport
• Fishermen's State Park in Narragansett

Give your eyes 30 minutes or so to adjust to the darkness, and then lie back on a chaise lounge or blanket to get the widest view of the sky.

Here’s what to you to know about the summer meteor showers:

Southern Delta Aquariids

The Southern Delta Aquariids, which run through Aug. 21, peak on July 30-31. Under dark skies, seven or eight meteors should be visible, according to NASA.

A waxing crescent moon — that is, the phase after the new moon when the moon grows increasingly lighter — the peak could be problematic because the meteors are so faint.

Because shooting star shows are overlapping, you will know you’ve spotted a Delta Aquariids meteor if it is coming from the direction of the constellation Aquarius in the southern part of the sky. The radiant point for the Perseids, on the other hand, is in the northern part of the sky.

Alpha Capricornids

The Alpha Capricornids have a “plateau-like” maximum at the July 29-30 peak. It isn’t a particularly strong shower and rarely produces more than five shooting stars at the peak, but what is notable is the number of bright fireballs produced during the peak. The shower runs through Aug. 12.

The moon will be about 27 percent full at the peak

The radiant point for the Alpha Capricornids meteor shower is the constellation Capricornus, which is located in the southern sky. To locate it, look for the “summer triangle” formed by the stars Vega, Altair and Deneb, and then look southwest.

Perseids

Those two meteor showers are an opening act for the Perseids, swift, bright meteors famous for producing numerous fireballs and persistent trains. Under dark skies, about 100 shooting stars should be visible, according to NASA.

The Perseids result from Earth passing through debris — bits of ice and rock — left behind by comet 109/P Swift-Tuttle during its numerous returns to the inner solar system. They’re so-named because the radiant point is the constellation of Perseus, found in the northern sky

The moon will be more than three-fourths full during the peak, which isn’t ideal. But because they so frequently produce bright fireballs, skywatchers may not be disappointed.

2025 isn’t expected to be an outburst year for the Perseids, but there’s a good chance of a Perseid meteor storm in 2028, according to Space.com.

Radiant Points

Knowing the radiant points isn’t that important when viewing meteor showers because the shooting stars can appear anywhere in the sky. At times when meteor showers overlap, knowing the radiant can help skywatchers distinguish between Southern Delta Aquariids, Alpha Capricornids and Perseids shooting stars.

Related: 2025 Guide To Meteor Showers, Supermoons And Other Celestial Events