This week, Astronomy magazine Editor Emeritus Dave Eicher invites you to observe the Eta Aquariid meteor shower, which peaks on May 5. Although the glare of the Moon will wash out fainter meteors, you’ll still be able to see the brightest meteors this shower has to offer, especially in a dark sky. Good luck!
How to see the Eta Aquariid meteors — video transcript
Welcome to This Week in Astronomy, brought to you by Celestron, the world’s leading manufacturer of telescopes. I’m Dave Eicher, editor emeritus of Astronomy magazine.
This week you can catch a nice meteor shower, which of course happens when small particles left in the trail of a comet fall into Earth’s gravity and they ionize in Earth’s atmosphere — we see them then as visible streaks.
The Eta Aquariid meteor shower, named because the point in the sky from which the meteors appear to come is near the star Eta Aquarii, peaks on May 5th. Lasting about a week, the shower typically produces as many as 55 meteors per hour under a really dark sky. As with all meteor showers, the greatest activity takes place between midnight and about 4 a.m. — that’s when Earth’s leading edge really turns into the oncoming meteor stream.
At the peak this year on May 5th, the Moon will be a few days past full, so it’s going to be really bright. That’ll eliminate seeing a lot of the fainter meteors. Still, it’ll be worth going out and seeing what you can see of this really good meteor shower that happens every year. Despite that brighter Moon, you’ll see the brightest Eta Aquariids, certainly from a dark sky, and it’ll be interesting to keep a count and see how many per hour you can usually see. Log that and let us know at the magazine what you find.
When you go out, when you see a meteor shower, all you have to do really is simply look up. You don’t need any optical aid to see meteors. You don’t want to limit the field in any way, you want to see the whole sky as you’re gazing up.
The Eta Aquariid meteor shower — it’s a good one. So even though there’s a bright Moon this year, head out and see what you can see of these small particles falling into Earth’s atmosphere and giving us a show. I’ll see you next time.
