The eta Aquarid meteor shower peaks on Saturday, May 7th. The best time to look, no matter where you live, is during the hours immediately before sunrise on Saturday morning. As usual, you will see more meteors from the dark countryside: get away from city lights if possible.
This is mainly a southern hemisphere shower, but northern observers can see it, too. Expected meteor rates: 5 to 10 per hour in the northern hemisphere, 20 to 60 per hour in the southern hemisphere. Latitudes between the equator and 30 degrees south are favored: this includes most of Australia, South America and southern Africa.
The Eta Aquarids are flakes of dust from Halley’s Comet, which last visited Earth in 1986. Although the comet is now far away, beyond the orbit of Uranus, it left behind a stream of dust. Earth passes through the stream twice a year in May and October. In May we have the eta Aquarid meteor shower, in October the Orionids. Both are caused by Halley’s Comet.
The eta Aquarids are named after a 4th-magnitude star in the constellation Aquarius. The star has nothing to do with the meteor shower except that, coincidentally, meteors appear to emerge from a point nearby. Eta Aquarii is 156 light years from Earth and 44 times more luminous than the Sun.
The constellation Aquarius does not rise very far above the horizon in the northern hemisphere, and that’s why northerners see relatively few meteors.
