It’s May and it’s getting warm (in the northern hemisphere). At a time like this, the Eta Aquarid meteor shower is a great excuse to look up at the night sky.
This year’s shower peaks near the new moon – the opposite of a full moon – which is ideal. Darker skies mean better viewing conditions, which will be a relief to anyone who tried to see this show last year, when a blinding full moon filled the sky with light, making meteor viewing nearly impossible. These conditions also provide a nice contrast to last month’s Lyrid meteor shower, where an almost fully waxing Gibbous Moon may have ruined your attempt to wish on a shooting star.
When to watch the Eta Aquarids in 2024
The Eta Aquarids are hosting a long show with activities from April 15th to May 27th this year. However, if you only look up once, plan to do so during the show’s peak activity period on the night of May 4th and beyond the early morning hours of May 5th. In theory, 2 a.m. local time is the absolute best time (due to factors we’ll discuss below), but meteors don’t follow any rules, so the hours between 2 a.m. and dawn are sure to be exciting too.
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Previous experience with this shower suggests that the Eta Aquarids occur in bursts. That means if you look it up during a break, you might think you missed the show. But wait a while and there will be no more confusion; They are fast meteors, and the speed of action is generally how you know you are seeing the Eta Aquarids. Patience is rewarded.
How do I see the Eta Aquarids?
Since most Mashable readers are in the Northern Hemisphere, the unfortunate answer to this question is: for best results, switch hemispheres. Stargazers from the Southern Hemisphere are blessed with a spectacle of 50 meteors per hour (assuming conditions are ideal), while northerners can only hope to see 10 to 30 per hour. Honestly though, 10-30 is still good.
Destructible speed of light
Find a dark patch of sky over an area away from cities and towns. A wide view is best. So if you’re reading this from the bottom of a well, catching a meteor shower will be a challenge. Make yourself comfortable. Stay warm. Preserve your night vision by not looking at your phone.
What are the Eta aquarids anyway?
The Eta Aquarids get their name from their radiation point, which in simple terms is the place in the sky where the meteors are formed. The Eta Aquarids come from the constellation Aquarius. Therefore, when observing the meteors, you have to wait for Aquarius to rise above the horizon (which is why it’s best to wait until 2 a.m. local time). But Aquarius is a collection of stars light-years away, and the meteors themselves are only 50 kilometers away when we see them burn up in our atmosphere.
Generally, meteor showers are the result of Earth passing through a comet’s trail of tiny particles of dust and ice. The Eta Aquarids happen to have a prominent parent: the Michael Jordan of space rocks, Halley’s Comet. The solar system’s most famous comet won’t reach Earth for decades to come, but this shower is our annual encounter with the remaining evidence of its existence.
Can apps help me find the Eta aquarids?
Stargazing apps like Sky Safari are highly recommended for stargazing in general, but they aren’t very useful during meteor showers. An app can make finding Aquarius a breeze, but the bright screen makes it harder to see meteors, and they streak across the entire sky anyway instead of congregating around their radiating point.
The best advice is: just look up and wait.