The Alpha Aurigid Meteor Shower.

The Alpha Aurigid Meteor shower occurs each year between 25 August and 6 September, and is expected to peak between 1.00 am and dawn on 1 September (this should be roughly the same wherever you are, as our 24 hour clock is derived from the motion of the Earth). However the shower is notoriously hard to observe, having been recorded only in the years 1911, 1929, 1930, 1935, 1979, 1980, 1986, 1994 and 2007 (some of these observations occurred before the 'official' discovery of the shower by Cuno Hoffmeister and Artur Teichgraeber in 1935, but have subsequently been linked to the shower). To make matters worse, the peak of the shower will fall slightly after the New Moon on 28 August, which would hamper the viewing of any meteors that do appear. The shower has its radiant point (the point from which the meteors appear to radiate) in the constellation of Auriga, close to the star Alpha Auriga (hence the name), which is a circumpolar star, permanently above the horizon in the Northern Hemisphere, but difficult to spot from the Southern Hemisphere.

The radiant of the Alpha Aurigid Meteors. Copper Mountain Mesa.

Meteor showers are thought to be largely composed of material from the tails of comets. Comets are composed largely of ice (mostly water and carbon dioxide), and when they fall into the inner Solar System the outer layers of this boil away, forming a visible tail (which always points away from the Sun, not in the direction the comet is coming from, as our Earth-bound experience would lead us to expect). Particles of rock and dust from within the comet are freed by this melting (strictly sublimation, transforming directly from a solid to a gas due to the low pressure on it's surface) of the comet into the tail and continue to orbit in the same path as the comet, falling behind over time.

The Earth passing through a stream of comet dust, resulting in a meteor shower. Not to scale. Astro Bob. 

The Aurigid Meteors are made by the Earth passing through the trail of Comet C/1911 N1 (Keiss),  and encountering dust from the tail of this comet. The dust particles strike the atmosphere at speeds of over 200 000 km per hour, burning up in the upper atmosphere and producing a light show in the process.

How the passage of the Earth through a meteor shower creates a radiant point from which they can be observed. In The Sky.

Comet C/1911 N1 (Keiss) was discovered on 6 July 1911, by astronomet Carl Clarence Keiss, at the Lick Observatory on the summit of Mount Hamilton, in the Diablo Range just east of San Jose, California. The name C/1911 N1 (Keiss) implies it was the first (1) comet (C/) discovered in the first half of July 1911 (period 1911 N), and that is was discovered by Keiss.

A photograph of Comet C/1911 N1 (Keiss) taken by French Astronomer Ferdinand Quénisset at the Camille Flammarion Observatory to the south of Paris on 29 July 1911. The photograph is a single 78 minute exposure which tracked the comet; the elongated objects are stars which moved during the course of the exposure. Wikimedia Commons.

Comet C/1911 N1 (Keiss) completes one orbit every 2497 years on an eccentric orbit tilted at 148° to the plane of the Solar System, that takes it from 0.68 AU from the Sun (68% of the average distance at which the Earth orbits the Sun, and slightly inside the orbit of the planet Venus) to 367 AU from the Sun (367 times as far from the Sun as the Earth, and more than three times the distance at which the planet Neptune orbits the Sun). The comet last visited the Inner Solar System in 1911. As a comet with an orbital period of more than 200 years it is considered to be a Long Period Comet.

The current position and orbit of C/1911 N1 (Keiss). JPL Small Body Database.

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Partial Lunar Eclipse to be visible from West Africa and much of the Americas.

A partial Lunar Eclipse will occur on Friday 28 August 2026, starting at 1.25 am GMT. The whole eclipse will be visible across all of South America and the Atlantic, and most of North America, and most of West Africa and the western Maghreb, and western Iberia while part of the eclipse will be visible from parts of the northwest of North America, the remaining parts of the Maghreb and West Africa, as well as much of Central and Southern Africa, European Russia, the remainder of the Middle East, and Western and Central Europe, and parts of Norway. although in these areas the Moon will either rise part way through the eclipse, or set before it is complete.

Areas from which the 28 August 2026 Lunar Eclipse will be visible. Dominic Ford/In the Sky.

The Moon produces no light of its own, but 'shines' with reflected light from the Sun. Thus, at Full Moon the Moon is on the opposite side of the Earth to the Sun, and its illuminated side is turned towards us, but at New Moon the Moon is between the Earth and the Sun, so that its illuminated side is turned away from us.

Lunar eclipses occur when the Moon passes through the Earth's shadow. This can only happen at Full Moon (unlike Solar Eclipses, which happen only when the Moon passes between the Earth and the Sum, and therefore only occur at New Moon), but does not happen every Lunar Month as the Sun, Moon and Earth are not in a perfect, unwavering line, but rather both the Earth and the Moon wobble slightly as they orbit their parent bodies, rising above and sinking bellow the plane of the ecliptic (the plane upon which they would all be in line every month).

How the differing inclinations of the Earth and Moon's orbits prevent us having an eclipse every 28 days. Starry Skies.

Because the Moon is passing through a shadow, rather than being blocked from our view, it does not completely disappear during an eclipse like the Sun, but in a total Lunar Eclipse goes through two distinct phases of dimming, the Penumbra, when it is still partially illuminated by the Sun, and the Umbra, when the Earth completely blocks direct sunlight from the Moon. This does not result in complete darkness, as the Moon is still partially lit by reflected Earthlight, but it does turn a deep, dark red colour.  In a partial eclipse the Earth passes completely through the Moon's penumbra, but only partly through its umbra.  

The phases of the 3 March 2026 Lunar Eclipse. Leah Tiscione/Sky & Telescope.

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The Kappa Cygnid Meteor Shower.

The Kappa Cygnid Meteor Shower is visible some years between the months of June and September, peaking between 3 and 25 August, with the best peak rate generally falling before dawn on 18 August, when the shower can produce 2-3 meteors per hour, with these tending to be bright fireballs with multiple fares. The meteor shower gains its name from the star Kappa Cygnus, which it is close to at the peak of its activity, and which is circumpolar in the Northern Hemisphere (i.e., close to the North Pole, and permanently above the horizon), although generally invisible in the Southern Hemisphere. If the shower does appear, viewing should be reasonably good, as activity will peak two days before the first quarter Moon, which will be in the constellation of Virgo, providing minimal light interference. However, the meteor shower is notoriously erratic, not being seen every year; it was last seen in the Augusts of 2020 and 2021, and before that in 2013 and 2014, then before that in 2007.

The radiant point of the Kappa Cygnid Meteor Shower. The Sky Live.

Meteor showers are thought to be largely composed of material from the tails of comets. Comets are composed largely of ice (mostly water and carbon dioxide), and when they fall into the inner Solar System the outer layers of this boil away, forming a visible tail (which always points away from the Sun, not in the direction the comet is coming from, as our Earth-bound experience would lead us to expect). Particles of rock and dust from within the comet are freed by this melting (strictly sublimation, transforming directly from a solid to a gas due to the low pressure on it's surface) of the comet into the tail and continue to orbit in the same path as the comet, falling behind over time.

The Earth passing through a stream of comet dust, resulting in a meteor shower. Not to scale. Astro Bob.

The source body of the Kappa Cygnid Meteors remains somewhat of an enigma. The low number of asteroids, and their irregular arrival, suggests they are an old shower potentially derived from an object no longer visiting the Inner Solar System, whereas the brightness of the meteors suggests a younger origin. One possible solution to this is that they are derived from a body whose orbit undergoes a sinusoidal oscillation, something which can be caused if a body is forced into an orbital resonance with a larger body, often Jupiter in our Solar System. 

How the passage of the Earth through a meteor shower creates a radiant point from which they can be observed. In The Sky.

One potential parent body for the Kappa Cygnid Meteors which has been suggested is 2008 ED69, an asteroid which has an orbit with a 2:1 resonance with that of Jupiter and an orbital period of 4.96 years, which is thought to have been pushed into and out of Earth-crossing orbits repeatedly over the past 6000 years. However, more recent studies have established that the Kappa Cygnid Meteor Shower has an orbital period of 7.12 years and is locked into a 5:3 orbital resonance with Jupiter, ruling out 2008 ED69 as a potential parent body.

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Total Solar Eclipse to be visible from Greenland and Spain.

 A total eclipse of the Sun will be visible from parts of Greenland and Spain, as well as intervening parts of the Atlantic Ocean, on Wednesday 12 August 2026, with a partial eclipse visible from the rest of western Europe, Canada, eastern parts of the United States, and parts of North and West Africa. The event will occur between 4.35 pm and 8.57 pm GMT, although local start and end times will vary within this window.

The Moon's shadow projected onto the Earth as the eclipse proceeds. The hemisphere of the Earth facing the Sun is shown. Contours show where various fractions of the Sun's disk is covered. In-The-Sky.

Eclipses are a product of the way the Earth, Moon and Sun move about one-another. The Moon orbits the Earth every 28 days, while the Earth orbits the Sun every 365 days, and because the two Sun and Moon appear roughly the same size when seen from Earth, it is quite possible for the Moon to block out the light of the Sun. At first sight this would seem likely to happen every month at the New Moon, when the Moon is on the same side of the Earth as the Sun, and therefore invisible (the Moon produced no light of its own, when we see the Moon, we are seeing reflected sunlight, but this can only happen when we can see parts of the Moon illuminated by the Sun).

The relative positions of the Sun, Moon and Earth during a Solar eclipse. Starry Night.

However, the Moon does not orbit in quite the same plane as the Earth orbits the Sun, so the Eclipses only occur when the two orbital planes cross one-another; this typically happens two or three times a year, and always at the New Moon. During Total Eclipses the Moon entirely blocks the light of the Sun, however most Eclipses are Partial, the Moon only partially blocks the light of the Sun.

How the differing inclinations of the Earth and Moon's orbits prevent us having an eclipse every 28 days. Starry Skies.

Although the light of the Sun is reduced during an Eclipse, it is still extremely dangerous to look directly at the Sun, and viewing eclipses should not be undertaken without appropriate equipment.

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Comet C/2024 J3 (ATLAS) makes its closest approach to the Earth.

Comet C/2024 J3 (ATLAS) will make its closest approach to the Earth on Sunday 26 July 2026, when it will reach a distance of 3.45 AU (i.e 3.45 times the average distance between the Earth and the Sun), or 515 426 942 km from us. At this time it will be in the constellation of Lyra, which is above the horizon permanently in much of the Northern Hemisphere at this time of year, but invisible from most of the Southern Hemisphere. The comet will have an apparent optical magnitude of 13.9, meaning it will be hard to spot without a fairly good telescope to observe it. Furthermore, the closest approach comes three days before the Full Moon on Wednesday 29 July, so there is likely to be considerable light interference.

The approximate positions and orbits of the C/2024 J3 (ATLAS), the Earth, and selected planets of the Solar System on 26 July 2026. JPL Small Body Database.

Comet C/2024 J3 (ATLAS) was discovered on 3 May 2024 by scientists at the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) telescope in Río Hurtado, Chile. The name C/2024 J3 (ATLAS) implies that it is a Comet (C/), that it was the 3rd comet (3) discovered in the first half of May 2024 (period 2024 J), and that it was discovered by the ATLAS sky survey.

An image of C/2024 J3 (ATLAS) taken on 10 July 2026, when it was a Magnitude 18.7 object in the constellation of Cygnus, taken from Gahberg in Austria. Günter Kerschhuber.

Comet C/2024 J3 (ATLAS) is a Parabolic Comet, which is to say a comet that was disrupted from an orbit in the Oort Cloud, and is passing through the Inner Solar System on a parabolic orbit that will probably not bring it back again. This parabolic trajectory is tilted at an angle of 75.6° to the plain of the Solar System, and will bring it at its closest to 3.87 AU from the Sun, on 25 November this year. C/2024 J3 (ATLAS) is not expected to pass close to any planets.

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