Eta Aquarid Meteor Shower 2017 Dates: How to See It; Shower Peaks at Dawn of May 6
Ahead of the highly anticipated Perseid meteor shower in August, the Eta Aquarid meteor shower has arrived, offering a series of spectacular shooting stars at night. The meteor shower started to occur in late April and will continue until mid-May.
Although pretty noticeable in the night sky without a telescope, the peak of the Eta Aquarid will come at the end of this week. As the meteor shower reaches its peak, sky watchers can expect to spot around 30 meteors per hour on the night of Friday, May 5, until early Saturday, May 6.
According to Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office, the most number of meteors will become visible before the dawn of Saturday.
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The Eta Aquarid meteor shower originates from one of the brightest stars in the Aquarius constellation, Eta Aquarii. Although observable in the night sky, people from around the world will see different views of the meteor shower. Sky watchers living near the equator will catch one of the best views of it, so people from Miami will get a better look at the spectacle than those in San Francisco.
The shower will be less radiant in the sky in mid-northern latitudes, so those living there should watch the shower from a dark-sky site for a more spectacular view.
Meanwhile, sky watchers living in the Southern Hemisphere are the luckiest of all, as they will get to see the radiance of the meteor shower in the north. It also happens to be the best time to watch a meteor shower in this part of the earth, since austral winter is coming and the nights are already becoming longer than usual.
Sky watchers who want to find the meteors should lie flat on their back and look straight up at the sky. The meteors are expected to create long bright streaks across the sky before dawn.
