This year's Eta Aquarid meteor shower will peak in the hours before dawn on May 5. If you want to go stargazing overnight, the best time to go is from the night of May 4 to the early morning of May 5.
Eta Aquarii, one of the brighter stars in the constellation Aquarius, appears to be the source of the meteors. (The radiant is the point in the sky where meteors appear to come from.) If you're in the mid-northern latitudes, the radiant won't be very high in the sky, so you'll need a dark-sky site with a pretty clear southern horizon to make the most of the meteors.
Because the Aquarius constellation is more noticeable in the southern sky, observers near the equator will have the best views.
However, even as far north as Miami, the view will be far superior to that from New York or San Francisco, for example. Skywatchers in the Southern Hemisphere will have the best view of all, as the shower's radiant will be visible in the north.
The nights in the Southern Hemisphere are also getting longer as the June solstice, and thus the austral winter approaches. Northern Hemisphere observers will need to search lower on the southeastern horizon to see the meteors.
The best time to gaze up at the stars is at 2 a.m.your local time.
The Eta Aquarids are named after their radiant point in the constellation Aquarius, which is close to one of the constellation's brightest stars, Eta Aquarii.
However, according to Space.com, the meteors did not originate in Aquarius, and the placement of the radiant there was merely an orbital coincidence that only guides observers to the appropriate point in the sky.
The meteors are debris from Comet Halley, the most famous periodic comet that passes by every 76 years.
According to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the history of this comet dates back to at least 273 B.C. Halley's Comet is also historically significant because it showed up in 43 B.C., a year after Julius Caesar was assassinated in Rome.
It is worth noting that the Eta Aquarids do not create as many meteors per hour as the Perseid meteor shower in August, which typically produces 50-100 meteors per hour and is also the most anticipated shower display each year.
Those who enjoy photographing the night sky look forward to meteor showers because they frequently provide the opportunity to capture breathtaking images. However, capturing even one spectacular photo of a meteor shower can be more difficult than it appears.
Fortunately, NASA has supplied some guidance and recommendations for people interested in photographing a meteor shower.
