When and where to see one of the southern hemisphere’s best meteor showers

Australian sky watchers will be treated to a meteor and planet show this weekend as long as the skies are clear.

The annual Eta Aquariid meteor shower can be seen on Saturday and Sunday morning from anywhere in Australia a couple of hours before sunrise.

While the shower peaks on the weekend, you might also catch some on Friday morning and early next week.

The Moon will have set before the point in the sky where the meteors come from — known as the radiant — rises above the eastern horizon.

And this year they will be easy to spot with a stunning line-up of four bright planets pointing where to look,   amateur astronomer Ian Musgrave says.

You’ll see Venus and Jupiter just above the eastern horizon.

“If you follow the line between Venus and Jupiter up you’ll see red Mars, and the shower radiant should be just about where Mars is.”

Above that is the golden orb of Saturn. 

How many meteors will I see?

The Eta Aquariids is one of the best meteor showers in the southern hemisphere, second only to the Geminids in December, says Jonti Horner, an astronomer at the University of Southern Queensland.

Each year Earth passes through a stream of debris laid down by Halley’s Comet, with the meteors appearing from a point in the constellation of Aquarius in May and Orion in October (aka the Orionids).

“The Eta Aquariids are a better shower than the Orionids because we’re passing more towards the middle of the debris stream, so we get much better numbers,” Professor Horner says.

Meteor rates will be consistently good wherever you are in Australia, but the further north you are, the better.

“From most of Australia, on the morning of the 7th and 8th, we’ll see around about 20 meteors per hour,” Dr Musgrave says.

“For those of us who are up near Darwin and Cairns and places like that, it will be closer to 24 meteors per hour.” 

And good news if the weather is iffy: the Eta Aquariids have a broad peak, so they are also visible for a few days before and after the weekend.

“You’re not missing out if it’s cloudy because [meteor] rates tend to stay high for a couple of days either side of maximum before falling off,” Professor Horner says.

The show starts once the radiant rises above the horizon around 3am, and gets increasingly better towards dawn, until the meteors are washed out in the twilight.

You’ll see more if you are somewhere away from the city lights, but you can still see some from the suburbs, Dr Musgrave says.

“You see plenty that are bright enough that are easily visible to the unaided eye.”

How to get the best view

Firstly, you need to get comfortable. You’ll be outside for a while because meteors don’t come in a regular pattern, so rug up and take a camping chair.

You don’t need anything special to see the meteor shower, but you might like to take a telescope or binoculars to get a good view of the planets while you are waiting.

But if you do take binoculars or a telescope, you need to be careful, Dr Musgrave says.

“If you’re spending all your time looking through the telescope you’ll miss the meteors; it’s a bit hard to do both.”

To catch meteors, you need to scan the sky rather than stare at one spot.

“Let your eyes move around because even though the radiant is at the point where the meteors appear to originate from, most of them start burning or glowing away from that point,” Dr Musgrave says.

Pay attention (because these meteors are fast) and look for faint vapour trails.

“They’re quite swift and they can produce persistent trails when the meteor goes past … sometimes high-altitude winds will twist these trails into interesting shapes,” Dr Musgrave says.