Eta Aquariid Meteor Shower Visible Overnight

10 to 20 meteors from the Eta Aquariid Meteor Shower will be viewable in the early hours of Tuesday morning. According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the peak viewing time will be between 2:00am and 5:00am CDT with the optimal time around 4:00am. The moon sets around 3:00am CDT, so the best viewing is after that until dawn.

NASA's "Explore" website says, "Eta Aquariid meteors are known for their speed, with the meteors traveling at about 40.7 miles (65.4 kilometers) per second into Earth's atmosphere. Fast meteors can leave glowing "trains" (incandescent bits of debris in the wake of the meteor) which last for several seconds to minutes. About 50 meteors can be seen per hour during the peak of the Eta Aquarids."

You will need to look low in the eastern sky away from bright lights to see some; expect 10–20 meteors per hour. The forecast is for skies to be mostly clear and ideal for viewing around 4:00am.

“The light from the waxing Moon will wash out the fainter meteors this year – expect to see at most 10-15 meteors per hour just before dawn on the morning of the 6^th.” said Bill Cooke, who leads NASA’s Meteoroid Environments Office at the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville

The Eta Aquariid Meteor Shower is comprised of debris from Comet Halley. Each time Halley returns to the inner solar system its nucleus sheds a layer of ice and rock into space. The dust grains eventually become the Eta Aquarids in May and the Orionids in October if they collide with Earth's atmosphere.Comet Halley takes about 76 years to orbit the Sun once. The last time comet Halley was seen by casual observers was in 1986. It will not enter the inner solar system again until 2061.

The point in the sky from which the Eta Aquarids appear to come – is the constellation Aquarius, the water bearer according to NASA. One of the brightest stars within Aquarius is called Eta Aquarii, and these meteors appear from this area of the constellation. (Eta Aquarii is one of the four stars that make up the top of the "water jar.")

Viewing of the Eta Aquariid will be available until May 28th with the next major meteor shower being the Delta Aquarids, in late July.

You won't need to have any special gear to see the meteor shower (actually more like a meteor drip). As the late Jack Horkheimer, the executive director of the Miami Space Transit Planetarium and best known for his astronomy show Jack Horkheimer: Star Hustler on PBS used to say, "Keep looking up!".

(Meteor Facts courtesy of Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville)

For more information click on:

American Meteor Society

NASA Meteor & Meteorite Facts