With no Moon to muss, take a crack at seeing what could be one of the better meteor showers of the year.

Where to spot Eta Aquariid meteors
The Eta Aquariid radiant is shown here from latitude 30° north (Houston, Cairo, Delhi, Shanghai) 90 minutes before sunrise on Sunday. Farther north, the radiant is lower when the sky starts to get light. Shower members can appear anywhere across the sky, but they all trace their paths backwards to the radiant.
Sky & Telescope

If you haven't paid much attention to the Eta Aquariid shower due to its early hour, it's time to commit. These speedy spitballs from the constellation Aquarius may be the last good meteor show for the remainder of the year.

You can blame the Moon. The richest showers — the August Perseids and December Geminids — will take a severe hit from moonlight this year. In both cases, the Moon will be at or near full and up most of the night. Even October's Orionids will only limp along thanks to a last quarter Moon.

A bright Eta Aquariid speeds beneath Corona Australis on May 5, 2014.
Frankie Lucena

From tropical and southern latitudes, the Eta Aquariid shower is a solid hitter with a peak of 40 meteors an hour. For skywatchers in mid-northern latitudes that number will be closer to 10–20 because the radiant only climbs to 15°–25° before the start of morning twilight. Maximum occurs Sunday morning, May 5th, in the wee hours before the start of dawn. That means you'll need to be outside watching from about 3–4:30 a.m. To make sure you don't miss that window, click here for your sunrise time and back up about 1 hour and 40 minutes to figure the start of morning twilight. Then back up one more hour to allow time to view the shower under a dark sky.

Several years back I had a wonderful experience with the Eta Aquariids. Meteors appeared at a steady pace right into morning twilight, tore across the sky at incredible speed, and left nice trains. Indeed, the stream produces fast meteors with speeds around 67 km/s, on par with their sister shower, the Orionids, and the zippy Leonids. While I only saw a dozen at most, each had character.

Meteors both coming and going
Eta Aquariids are dribs and drabs of Halley's Comet. Perturbations by planets and the Sun have caused the particles to spread out into a ribbon centered on Halley's orbit. Earth plows through the debris in the outbound leg of the comet's orbit every May and the inbound leg every October.
Bob King

The Orionids and Eta Aquariids are two sides of the same coin since both are splinters of Halley's Comet. Earth crosses the comet's path twice a year, first in May, when meteors stream from near the star Eta Aquarii, and again in late October, when Halley's dust becomes the Orionids. On May 5th, the comet is a 26th-magnitude blip 35 a.u. (5.2 billion km) from Earth, located 6° west of the head of Hydra, the Water Snake. It reaches aphelion on December 9, 2023. Until it returns in 2061, we'll have these two showers to remind us it yet lurks in the dark.

Given the radiant's low altitude, be alert for Earthgrazers long before the radiant rises. These are slower-moving meteors that launch upward from below the horizon, skimming the atmosphere and flaring for many seconds before fading out. The best time to see them is during the late evening and very early morning before the peak.

Way out there!
This diagram shows the location of Halley's Comet and its orbit at this year's Eta Aquariid shower peak.
JPL / Horizons

To best enjoy the shower use this interactive Light Pollution Map to find as dark a location as possible outside the city. Bring a reclining chair (or lie flat on your back), a blanket for warmth, and a pair of eyes. Locations with wide-open views are best. As with all meteor showers, you needn't stare at the radiant to catch an Eta Aquariid. Perspective causes meteors from that direction to appear short. Angle your chair to the south or northeast and you'll see the "shooting stars" from the side, where they display longer and more dramatic trails. Speaking of which, these fast meteors are known for producing persistent trains, long-lasting streaks of ionized air that glow for a second or two after the meteoroid has vaporized.

If the weather looks bad Sunday, the shower will show good activity from May 4–6, so you'll have more than one morning to spy a flaming Halley-mote. While you're out, you'll also enjoy spectacular views of the summer Milky Way before the mosquitoes arrive and see Venus appear low in the southeast at dawn.

Comments


Image of Walter Clayton

Walter Clayton

May 1, 2019 at 11:23 am

If all goes well weather wise, and, I wake up in time, I'll lay in the berth, look up and watch the show through the forward hatch, while tied to a mooring ball in the river off of St. Augustine, Fl.

If not, then the hatch will be closed, and, I'll be sleeping, and, waiting for spectacular pictures.

Walter Clayton
s/v Always Home

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Bob King

May 2, 2019 at 10:15 am

May clear skies come your way, Walter.

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Rod

May 1, 2019 at 1:44 pm

Bob, I read a number of recent reports on this meteor shower, very good report here. Weather does not look good for my location in Maryland, early Sunday morning. Perhaps the 6th will be better for me based upon the local forecast. Eta Aquarids radiant should be up at my location then about 0244/45 EDT.

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Bob King

May 2, 2019 at 10:16 am

Rod,
Let us know if you were successful in seeing any.

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bob kelly

May 1, 2019 at 2:41 pm

Hi, Bob,
You saw a great show of the eta Aquarids in Duluth? That far north - that's amazing!
At least, because of the late rise of the radiant, it's a short shower - just 3am until dawn, so there's not a lot of time invested if the shower is not productive.
Thanks,
bob

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Bob King

May 2, 2019 at 10:18 am

Hi Bob,
Yes, it was indeed a short shower because of the early onset of twilight, but it surprised me. Again, I didn't see many due to low radiant, etc. but the ones I saw made for an exciting morning. How true about time investment on this one! I plan to watch again this year.

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Jakob

May 3, 2019 at 7:23 am

At 56° north it might be difficult seeing this shower. Is it worth trying? Jakob

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Rod

May 3, 2019 at 12:03 pm

Jakob, I looked at Anchorage Alaska location for 5th of May. That is near 52 degrees north so it looks tough viewing. Near 0500 local time, Eta Aquariid radiant up near 9 degrees altitude and azimuth near 108 degrees. Rise time is 0342 local time. Sunrise comes up quickly too. You have a tight viewing window it seems.

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Rod

May 3, 2019 at 12:08 pm

oops, Anchorage is 61 north so Jakob, you likely can view too. The rise times altitudes and azimuth provided in my note is for Anchorage Alaska location and good.

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Jakob

May 3, 2019 at 2:10 pm

Thanks Rod for your advice! I will get out on sunday morning if the forecast holds. God luck with your own observing plans. Jakob

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Glenn

May 4, 2019 at 7:03 am

Hi Bob, a small correction for the ETA max is needed. As per the IMO calendar max is at 1200 UT on May 6th. So no one has missed it. Link to IMO here: https://www.imo.net/viewing-the-eta-aquariid-meteor-shower-in-2019/
Bad luck so far in Sydney with 4 clouded out mornings in a row - but that's astronomy....... G

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Rod

May 4, 2019 at 7:47 am

Bob King et al. I did see some Eta Aquariids this morning in Maryland. Here is the note from my stargazing log:

"Observed 0330-0410 EDT. Sunrise 0606 EDT, Moon rise 0615 EDT, New Moon 04-May-19 at 2246 UT/1846 EDT. USNO begin civil twilight 0537 EDT. I enjoyed two Eta Aquariid meteor flashes this morning shortly after 0330 EDT. Both meteors passed by near Cygnus constellation, as bright as Deneb and Vega in Lyra so mv +0.0 estimate. One traveling fast north, the other shooting through Cygnus. The Eta Aquariid meteors streak by about 66 km^-s. The stars of Delphinus easy to see so limiting magnitude mv +5.0 or better. Two polar orbiting satellites in descending node passed by too, about mv +3.0. The satellites move much slower than the Eta Aquariids. The satellites orbit at about 8 km^-s. Eta Aquariid meteor radiant rise at 0243 EDT for my location in Aquarius according to Starry Night, 0246 EDT according to Stellarium. Altocumulus clouds moved in near 0400 EDT. Clouds were in my area so limited my observations. Ground fog started forming too this morning. The Eta Aquariid radiant was about 13 degrees altitude and 102 degrees azimuth while I observed. Deneb 55-57 degrees altitude and 64 degrees azimuth for my location while.

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TimK

May 23, 2019 at 3:19 pm

For future usage, I think the first orbit diagram for 1P/Halley is incorrect. Halley is a retrograde comet and should have the opposite sense of the Earth. That's why the meteors from Halley are so fast.
Best, Tim

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Bob King

May 23, 2019 at 3:38 pm

Hi Tim,
I'm so glad you wrote. Actually, the Halley orbit is correct (along with the outbound and inbound references) however I inadvertently had the Earth orbiting clockwise from above rather than counterclockwise. That is now corrected 🙂 Thank you!

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