| Eta Aquariids Meteor Shower May 6, 2024 ⬅︎ |
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The Southern Giant
The Eta Aquariid meteor shower produces the strongest rates of any shower seen from the southern hemisphere -- about 55 per hour. In addition, its meteors are blazingly fast—traveling at about 148,000 mph when they enter Earth's atmosphere. At this speed, a high percentage of them produce trains (smokey trails) but not fireballs.
This shower is active from April 19 through May 28 and, unusually, has a peak that lasts about a week. In contrast with the major showers already this year, the Quadrantids peak is only hours and the Lyrids is three days. Look below for the date of the peak’s mid-point for this year.
The radiant is in the constellation Aquarius and is easy to find using the Great Square of Pegasus. Sadly, from the northern hemisphere and Starry Hill in particular, the radiant doesn’t rise above the horizon until 3 AM and dawn light starts to brighten the sky by 5 AM. So most of the meteors will be below our horizon.
Which comet left behind the debris that forms this shower? The most famous of all -- Halley's Comet — which will return to the inner solar system in 2061 to release more of the ingredients of meteor showers into the surrounding space.
| Dates |
Rate |
Speed |
Radiant |
Parent |
2024 Peak |
| May 19 - 28 |
55 |
41 mi/s |
Aquarius |
Comet Halley |
May 6/7 |
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| Viewing Eta Aquariids Meteor Shower | | Level | Easy | Rating |  | Best Viewing | Night of May 6/7 | | Find | To find the radiant, look east to find the four bright star that form the Great Square of Pegasus. Find Alpheratz. Hop from it to Markab and hop again same distance and direction to the radiant (see above). In the Starry Hill region, the radiant doesn't rise until about 2 AM.
|  | In general with meteor showers, the best viewing begins after midnight and improves each hour until just before dawn.
|  | For 2024, some great news is that the Moon will be setting at around 7:08 PM in the evening and so won't be interfering with the shower. |
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| More info: All about Shooting Stars, Meteors and Meteor Showers
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