5 Things You Need To Know For August 11, 2026

August 11, 2026 4:56 am Published by Chris McLeod

_{August 11th is the 223rd day of the year. There are 142 days remaining until the end of the year.}

Lots going on in the sky this week.

The Perseid summer meteor shower is back with viewing conditions looking especially promising for us here in the Northern Hemisphere.

The meteor shower’s peak Wednesday night into Thursday. As many as 50 to 100 meteors per hour may be visible under ideal dark rural conditions.

Plus a little bonus this year: There is a New Moon Wednesday, meaning essentially no moonlight washing out the faint meteors.

A planet “parade” is also set to put on a show this week.

A rare six-planet alignment will start becoming visible Tuesday and peaks Wednesday and will continue for several mornings afterward.

Six planets, Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, will all be appearing along the same stretch of sky. You won’t actually be able to see all six with your naked eye. But Jupiter, Mercury, Mars and Saturn should be the easy ones.

It’s best viewed a little before sunsrise roughly the hour or two before the sky starts getting bright.

It’s getting to be time to get kids ready for back to school especially first time students.

CLASS is once again offering its First Ride program for JKs, SKs and their parents.

Saturday in either Chatham or Sarnia, new school bus riders can take a ride on a bus, get comfortable with it and learn some school bus safety too.

You can stop by at Ursuline College in Chatham or Great Lakes Secondary in Sarnia anytime between 8:30 am-11:30 am on Saturday, August 15. The event is free and there is no need to pre-register.

Buffalo Bills fans got their first look at the NFL team’s new stadium over the weekend.

The $2.2 billion Highmark Stadium opened for the first time on Saturday for a Bills practice.

The stadium took around 3 years to build, has a capacity of just over 60,000 and replaces the teams historic 1973 stadium across the street.

The only issues? Many fans are not happy with it and took to social media to complain about obstructed seating sightline concerns. The team responded and said its hoping to fix the issues before their home opener against the Lions on September 17