Connecticut Skies Get Busy With Celestial Wonders This Month

I'm a bit more tuned into the night sky than most with my 4AM drive across most of Litchfield County to get into work. The sky this morning was incredible with a 95% full Sturgeon moon, but that may interfere with the best meteor shower.

A Trinity of Celestial Events Will Happen Over the Next Seven Days

The Perseid meteor shower of the Summer of 2025 will peak over Connecticut on Tuesday and Wednesday August 12-13, and the full Sturgeon moon will peak early Saturday morning. Another wonderful event that happens right in the middle of this weekend is Sunday the 10th when six planets will line up - Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, and most will be visible to our naked eyes. The next time you may be able to see all six of these beauties together again will be in February 2026.

The most impressive event though will be the Perseid meteor shower, but depending on the skies over us next week, it depends on how lucky we get. The Candian wildfires blanketed the entire Northeast this week, it really just started to lift today, and the moon last night was an incredible hue of orange. Governor Ned Lamont has just activated the state's Extreme Hot Weather Protocol for next week starting at noon Monday, August 11 and remain in effect through Thursday, August 14. Here comes the fourth heat wave of 2025, heat indexes are expected to exceed 100 degrees on Wednesday and Thursday.

So, if the Sturgeon moon dims a bit, the approaching humid air simmers down a bit, and those Canadian wildfires are quenched? Keep your eyes to the skies overhead Connecticut, there are three wonderful events for us early risers and curious night owls.