Earth gets pelted by meteors all the time, but only a few showers are large enough to warrant names. Bootids is one such meteor shower, and it generally occurs in June every year as the Earth moves through the tail of the 7P/Pons-Winnecke comet. For 2025, the best night to catch a potential glimpse of Bootids is this Friday, June 27.
It isn’t an easy meteor shower to spot. Its “radiant” — the point in the sky from which the meteor shower appears to originate — is in the constellation Boötes (hence the shower’s name), which means herdsman or ox-driver in ancient Greek.
According to Stellarium’s sky map, Boötes will be in the western sky, close to the horizon, all Friday evening before dipping below the horizon at sunrise. This applies to the entire continental US, so there aren’t any special instructions based on location.
The reason viewers will need a little luck to see it is twofold. For starters, the constellation is pretty low on the horizon, which will make it much harder to see from a well-lit city or suburb.
Secondly, the American Meteor Association classifies Bootids as a Class III meteor shower. That means it may light up the sky with plenty of meteors or average less than one per day, even at its peak. We won’t know the strength of this year’s Bootids until Saturday after the peak has passed.
One meteor hit a Georgia house
Despite its finicky nature, the shower did produce an incident here on Earth.
On Thursday, a meteor entered Earth’s atmosphere and mostly burned up, but it did leave a golf-ball-size hole in a Georgia family’s home. Observers reported seeing the meteor as far away as Tennessee, Florida, and North Carolina.
Here’s an excellent video — like something out of War of the Worlds — that shows the Georgia meteor. With Bootids at its peak, there’s an increased risk of such an event occurring again.
Tips for watching the Bootids meteor shower
Much like real estate, it’s all about location, location, location. City dwellers and suburbanites will have the hardest time spotting a shooting star, since the light pollution of larger populated areas can get in the way of seeing dimmer meteors. For context, the Perseids meteor shower can spit out upward of 100 meteors per hour, but in the city, you may see only one to two per hour, if any.
The best tip is getting out of the city as far as you’re willing to go. The further out you go, the less light pollution will hinder your progress and the more chance you’ll have of catching sight of a meteor. If you can swing it, take a pair of binoculars. A telescope isn’t necessary and in fact will restrict your view of the open sky too much, which may cause you to miss meteors.
Other than that, the key is patience. With inconsistent showers like Bootids, it may be a steady shower all night or bursts of activity. Finally, it’s best to temper expectations. You may go home not seeing anything at all, especially if the weather is not on your side.
