EYES TO THE SKIES! THE ETA AQUARID METEOR SHOWER ACTIVE RIGHT NOW AND PEAKING ON MAY 5TH! – BE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR SHOOTING STARS! - 05/05/2025 🤩💖🌠✨️
A QUICK SUMMARY
- Parent Body: Comet 1P/Halley
- Radiant Constellation: Aquarius
- Shower activity between: 19th April – 28th May
- Peak activity: 5th – 6th May
- Peak meteor count: 40-55 per hour in the Southern hemisphere, ~25 per hour in the Northern hemisphere.
After a long meteor drought, April treated us to the Lyrid meteor shower and also the start of the Eta Aquarid meteor shower. As we head into the month of May we will also soon be treated to the peak of the Eta Aquariids.
The annual Eta Aquarid meteor shower is active between mid-April and the end of May, marking one of the first major meteor showers of 2024. Whilst the Eta Aquariids favours the Southern Hemisphere and as such is not the most intense meteor shower in the UK, it can still be a fairly strong display, producing up to 25 meteors an hour under perfect conditions in the Northern Hemisphere.
All in all, it’s a great time to spot meteors and well worth spending an hour or two out stargazing on these beautiful and much warmer nights.
If you would like more information including when to look, where to look, what causes meteor showers, and more, please read on…
THE ETA AQUARID METEOR SHOWER
The Eta Aquarid Meteor Shower is so named because the radiant point from which its meteors appear to radiate from is located within the zodiacal constellation of Aquarius the water bearer, and more specifically the Eta star of Aquarius.
The Eta Aquariids are known for their fast meteors which typically travel at a velocity of 41 miles per second as they enter the Earth's atmosphere, in mph that’s a speed of roughly 148,000 miles per hour!
The Eta Aquarid meteor shower is also known for displaying bright meteors that leave long trails and can occasionally produce super bright meteors known as fireballs, which are exceptionally bright meteors (brighter than Venus) or bolide meteors (brighter than the Moon) that blaze across the night sky amazing all those that witness them. Sometimes you can even observe these meteors breaking up into fragments which we have witnessed with all of our guests during one of our stargazing events.
Unfortunately for those of us in the Northern hemisphere, this meteor shower is best placed for those in the Southern Hemisphere. The reason for this is because the radiant appears low in the sky during the dawn hours for us and rises higher in the Southern hemisphere’s skies. This means we may only expect to see half the amount of the potential 50 meteors per hour, up to 25 meteors per hour at the showers peak under perfect conditions. Nevertheless, the Eta Aquariid shower is still a great meteor shower to look out for.
WHERE DO METEORS COME FROM? / PARENT BODY – COMET 1P/HALLEY
Most meteor showers are caused by comet debris that crosses Earth’s orbit, some showers are caused by asteroid debris.
The Eta Aquarid meteor shower is caused by the debris left behind from the comet 1P/Halley.
Comet Halley has visited our inner solar system many times in the past and many sightings of the comet have been recorded by astronomers throughout human history. It is thought that records of sightings of comet Halley go as far back as 240BC when the comet was observed by ancient Chinese astronomers. However, it wasn’t known that many of these sighting were actually of the same object orbiting the sun until a very clever theorist, mathematician and astronomer observed and studied the comet in 1682.
Comet 1P/Halley was observed in 1682 by the famous British intellectual Edmond Halley. Halley studied records about comet sightings throughout history and came to the conclusion that many of these sightings were all of the same object that orbited the Sun at a regular interval. Halley predicted the comet would re-appear in 1758, and he was proven correct! This was the first comet to have been discovered to have a short orbital period hence it’s designation 1P and was named after Halley who discovered its periodic nature.
Comet Halley takes 75-76 years to orbit the sun (its orbital period), it last visited the central solar system in 1986 and will return again 2061.
An interesting fact about the parent comet Halley is that the Eta Aquariids is one of two meteor showers created by debris from the same comet. The other is the Orionid meteor shower which graces our skies in October.
WHAT CAUSES THE LIGHT FROM METEORS?
As a comet or asteroid travels through space, it leaves a trail of dust and debris behind it. When Earth intersects these trails, we slam into the dust and debris in their wake. The debris then enters the Earth’s atmosphere at incredibly high speed, generating immense amounts of energy released in the form of intense heat and light. Meteors tend to vary from the size of a sand grain to about as big as a pea. The bigger the piece of debris, the bigger and brighter the meteor.
When a meteoroid particle strikes the upper atmosphere at high speed, it heats up to around 1,650°C and starts to glow. The meteoroid also compresses and heats the air in front of it, exciting atoms like oxygen which in turn radiate light. Together, the two processes produce the bright, needle-like flashes known as meteors or "shooting stars."
Occasionally, a meteoroid may be large enough to survive it’s fiery journey through our atmosphere, landing somewhere on Earth. When a meteoroid manages to land on our planet, it becomes known as a meteorite.
METEOR COLOURS ❤️💙💜🧡💛☄️
When meteoroids burn up in our atmosphere, they can sometimes create beautifully colourful trails behind them. The colours that meteors display are partly caused by the presence of traces of elements such as sodium, iron and calcium, the same elements that are used to make fireworks colourful.
These elements become ionised as they travel through Earth’s atmosphere and emit a beautiful range of different coloured meteor trails as their particles burn up in the atmosphere. The colours that are emitted depend on the elements being excited.
Here are the colours associated with different elements found in meteors: 👇
🟠 Orange-yellow — sodium;
🟡 Yellow — iron;
🔵 Blue-green — magnesium;
🟣 Violet — calcium;
🔴 Red — atmospheric nitrogen and oxygen.
The speed at which the meteor enters the Earth’s atmosphere can also affect the colour. The faster a meteor moves, the more intense it’s colour may appear.
WHAT TO CONSIDER TO MAKE SURE YOU CAN SEE METEORS
The main thing you need to consider when looking for meteors from a meteor shower is the date when the Earth travels it’s furthest into the trail of debris left by the parent comet or asteroid. Around this period of time there will be a higher number of meteoroids entering the Earth’s atmosphere, this is the peak of the meteor shower.
The next most important thing to consider is the time that the radiant for the meteor shower will be high in the sky. The higher the radiant is in your visible sky, the higher your chances of viewing meteors will be.
However, sometimes the radiant for a shower may not be at it’s highest point in the sky when the skies are dark. You must also take the brightness of the skies into account along with the radiant’s location in order to maximise your chances of viewing meteors.
There are also other factors such as the Earth weather, the conditions of your viewing location and the Moon’s position and phase that will affect how easy it is to view meteors and need to be considered.
WHEN IS THE PEAK / THE BEST NIGHT TO WATCH?
This year the Eta Aquariid meteor shower is active between the 19th April and the 28th May, however the peak night where the shower will be most active will be the evening of the 5th of May into the morning of the 6th.
The exact peak of the shower will be at roughly 04:00 BST on the 6th of May, however at this time the skies will be rather bright due to the morning twilight.
Don’t worry if it’s cloudy on the peak night. Unlike many other major annual meteor showers, there is no sharp peak for this shower, but rather a plateau of good rates that last approximately one week around the 5th-7th May.
WHERE TO LOOK / THE RADIANT
The radiant for the Eta Aquarid meteor shower can be located in the constellation of Aquarius the water-bearer.
Aquarius can be found below the asterism known as the Summer Triangle consisting of the three bright stars Deneb (in the constellation of Cygnus), Vega (in Lyra) and Altair (in Aquila).
The exact location for the radiant can be found next to the Eta star in Aquarius, below the star Biham (the head of the flying horse Pegasus) and just below and left of the brightest star in Aquarius-Sadalmelik.
You can tell if a meteor belongs to a specific shower by tracing a line backwards from the direction it appeared to travel in across the sky. If this line leads you to the radiant’s location, you can tell that meteor belonged to that specific meteor shower.
You don’t need to know exactly where the meteors radiate from because meteors can appear anywhere in the sky. However, knowing where the radiant is may help you increase your chances of viewing meteors. If you can locate the radiant, try looking at a dark part of the sky around 45 degrees away to maximise your chances of viewing meteors. Meteors seen closer to the radiant will appear shorter / leave shorter trails compared to others further away from the radiant.
If you can find the asterism known as the Summer Triangle, this may be a good place to focus on in order to maximise your chances of viewing meteors from the Eta Aquarid meteor shower.
WHAT TIME TO LOOK / RADIANT CONTINUED
As with many meteor showers (the Moon aside) the best time to head out and watch meteor showers is usually on the peak night between midnight and dawn, when the radiant is (usually) high in the sky and the skies are darkest. Don’t worry if you can’t head out this late, there should still be plenty of meteors about earlier in the night.
Although more meteors may be visible when the radiant is higher in the sky, the main thing we need to know about a meteor shower radiant, is that it has risen above the horizon. Once the radiant has risen in the sky there will be a higher chance of seeing meteors, and the higher the radiant has risen, the more meteors will be visible. Usually, if you wait until gone midnight, the radiant will be higher in the sky, and you will have a much greater chance of seeing meteors.
On the peak night of the Eta Aquariids on the 5th-6th of May, the radiant for the meteor shower will rise above the Eastern horizon at around 02:39am on the morning of the 6th. The radiant will reach its highest point in the sky on the 6th at around 08:37am (not the best time for meteor watching!), the Sun will rise at roughly 05:14am and the radiant will set in the daylit afternoon skies at around 14:36pm.
Although the radiant for the Eta Aquariids will not rise until just before our skies begin to become brighter, leaving us with a very small window of ideal meteor viewing conditions, it is still worth heading out earlier to make the best of the night time dark skies. If you can, we recommend heading out at around midnight and spending a few hours looking for meteors before dawn to make the best of the dark skies.
If you head out early in the night before the radiant has risen, you might also be treated to something called an “Earth grazer” meteor (long, slow, colourful meteors that skim across the edge of our atmosphere).
WHERE TO VIEW FROM / VIEWING LOCATION
The location that you do your stargazing from can make a big difference to the amount of stars and in this case shooting stars that are possible to see in the night sky. The darker your viewing location, the more your eyes will adapt to the darkness and the more of the fainter meteors from a shower will be visible.
Ideally you want to find a safe dark location, with clear views of the sky, and as far away from sources of light such as street lights as possible.
DARK ADAPTATION / NIGHT VISION
Try not to look at sources of light such as your mobile phone or the Moon for around 15 minutes or so, this will allow your eyes to adapt to the dark conditions of your location. After around 15-30 minutes of letting your eyes adapt to the dark, the pupils of your eyes will dilate to their maximum aperture. This will allow more light to enter your eyes and more fainter night sky objects will be easier to see.
If you need to use a torch to light your way, we recommend using a torch that emits only red light. Red light has much less of an effect on your night vision.
If you want to use your phone, use it on its lowest brightness and you can always cover the screen with a red film to minimise its effect on your night vision. Star map/planetarium apps such as Stellarium often have a night mode that displays only in red light which can also help you keep your night vision.
THE MOON / DARK SKIES
Sometimes the glow of the Moon can interfere with a meteor shower and spoil meteor shower views by lighting up the night sky and washing out the fainter meteors. When the Moon is bright, it leaves only the brightest of meteors visible.
Unfortunately for this year’s peak night of the Eta Aquarid meteor shower, the Moon will be 64% illuminated and will be in our skies for most of the night. This means the moon will be creating some natural light pollution and making it harder to observe the fainter meteors from the Aquariids.
A tip to help you see more on nights with a bright moon is to keep the moon out of sight. Try to keep your back to the Moon or try blocking the Moon from sight with a tree/building. This will minimise the Moon’s effect on your night vision and you will be looking into the darker portion of the sky where you will have a better chance of seeing faint meteors.
VIEWING TIPS
• You don’t need a telescope or any special equipment, just your eyes and a bit of patience.
• Find a safe, dark location with clear unobstructed views and as far away from streetlights as possible. The darker your location, the more meteors you will see. Don’t worry if you can’t get somewhere dark, even if your viewing location isn’t very dark, you should still see the brighter meteors. We often head down to Scarborough North Bay to watch the meteor showers if the radiant is due East (towards the sea) and we can’t get somewhere darker.
• Allow your eyes to adjust to the darkness and you will see more meteors. Our eyes require time to adjust to low levels of light. Try not to look at bright lights (such as a phone) for around 15-30 minutes and this will allow you to see many more meteors. If you do require to use a torch, use one which emits red light as this interferes with your night vision less than white light.
• Try blocking the Moon and other sources of light from your view to minimise their effect on your night vision.
• Keep your back to the Moon and you will be looking at the darkest portion of the sky, increasing your chance of viewing faint meteors.
• Be mindful of other stargazers when using a torch, you don’t want to ruin others meteor shower experience!
• You don’t need to know where the radiant for a meteor shower is to be able to view meteors but if you do, it can help. Once you’ve located the radiant in the sky, looking halfway between the horizon and the zenith (directly upwards), and 45 degrees from the radiant will improve your chances of viewing meteors (however, pay attention to the whole sky as they can appear anywhere). The closer to the radiant you look, the shorter the meteors will appear. The further away from the radiant you look, the longer they will appear.
• You can tell if a meteor belongs to a specific shower by tracing a line backwards from the direction it appeared to travel in across the sky. If this line leads you to the radiant’s location, you can tell that meteor belonged to that specific meteor shower.
• If you can find the asterism known as the Summer Triangle, this may be a good place to focus on in order to maximise your chances of viewing meteors.
• You might want to take a blanket to lay on or a chair to recline in, so your neck doesn’t get strained whilst looking up.
• If you head out, wrap up well! Although our nights are becoming warmer, it still can get quite chilly and you may end up being too cold to stay out and see any meteors. Bring a blanket to cover yourself in and a flask with a warm drink for extra comfort. ❄️🧤🧣
• You may wish to gather some of your friends and family to share this magical occasion too. You could always host a meteor watching party with music and drinks (but no bright lights!).
WHAT ELSE IS THERE TO SEE IN THE NIGHT SKY THROUGHOUT MAY?
If you would like to know more about the rest of the celestial treats that can be seen in the skies throughout May, please head to our YouTube channel to watch our Night Sky Guide video for May 2025.
CLOSING WORDS FROM ASTRO DOG
After a long meteor shower drought, we are super excited to have the chance to see another great meteor shower. We can’t wait to see if we witness any amazing fireballs during the Eta Aquarid meteor shower and we hope you all get to see some too!
As ever, interactions or shares are a great help, and we are eternally grateful for all your support.
Good luck everyone and clear skies!!! 💖
#aquaridmeteorshower #etaaquaridmeteorshower #etaaquariids #aquariids #meteorshower #meteors #shootingstars #space #astronomy #stargazing #telescope #telescopes #nightskyguide #astrodognightskyguide #astrodog #astrodoguk