Peaks 07/30 at up to 5 per hour under ideal conditions. Active, peaked 8 days ago.
Status right now: Active, peaked 8 days ago.
Few in number but famous for slow, bright fireballs.
The Alpha Capricornids come from comet 169P/NEAT, and enter the atmosphere at about 23 kilometres per second. That is slow by meteor standards, which tends to produce long, leisurely trails and a higher share of bright fireballs.
The quoted rate of 5 per hour is the zenithal hourly rate — the count you would get with the radiant directly overhead, under a perfectly dark sky, with no moon. Nobody's actual conditions match that. Real counts are typically a third to a half of the headline figure, and considerably less with a bright moon or from a town.
SkyRef scales the estimate by the real altitude of the radiant from your location and tells you when the moon is going to ruin it, rather than repeating a number you will never see.
Do not use a telescope or binoculars — meteors appear all over the sky and you want the widest possible view. Lie back, look roughly halfway up, and give your eyes twenty minutes to adapt. Face away from the moon if it is up. Patience matters more than equipment.