Categorized | Sci-Tech

Get up! Go see the nAquariid meteor shower

Special to Hawaii247.com by Andrew Cooper

The early hours of dawn Tuesday, May 5 will see the peak of the ηAquariid meteor shower. 

This is a reliable shower that produces anywhere from 40-80 meteors each hour near peak. Resulting from debris left behind by Comet 1P/Halley this shower approaches the Earth from the direction of the constellation Aquarius. 

As this constellation is quite low in the sky during the shower the meteors are entering the atmosphere at a low angle, this often results in meteors with long trains crossing much of the sky. A good shower that produces great fireballs.

The ηAquariids seem to peak in activity every 12 years, with 2008-2010 favored for heavier than usual showers. Judging from past data 2009 should produce a good showing, but meteor prediction is an inexact science, no way of knowing ahead of time how good the shower will be. 

The ηAquariid shower has a broad peak with several weeks of activity either side of the peak. The entire meteor shower lasts from around April 19 to May 28. 

Any morning from May 3 to May 10 can be worth watching with rates above 30 meteors per hour. The peak itself is predicted for 2 p.m. Tuesday, May 5, but this shower often produces subpeaks as the Earth passes through clouds of debris left on successive orbits of Halley’s Comet.

A fine, rich shower associated with Comet 1P/Halley, like the Orionids of October, but one visible for only a few hours before dawn, essentially from tropical and southern hemisphere sites. Some useful results have come even from sites around 40°N latitude in recent years however, and occasional meteors have been reported from further north, but the shower would benefit from increased observer activity generally. 

The fast and often bright meteors make the wait for radiant-rise worthwhile, and many events leave glowing persistent trains after them.

The viewing conditions for this event are tight, but possible, during a brief window between moonset and dawn on the days around the expected peak. 

There should be around one hour of full darkness available May 5 with a little less available on the morning of May 6. On the 4th the Moon will set at 02:45HST, on the morning of the 5th moonset will be 03:22HST, and on the 6th it will be 03:58HST.

Given the ηAquariids reliable activity and the chance for a more active than normal shower for 2009, it may be worth setting the alarm clock early and giving this shower a look. 

If you do get up there is the additional treat of five planets to be seen, three with the unaided eye. Jupiter and Neptune are quite high and only 2° apart. Closer to the horizon is a line of Uranus, Venus and Mars.

(Unless otherwise noted times and positions are shown for the island of Hawai’i using Hawaiian Standard Time, 20°N latitude, 155°W longitude, for other locations most events listed will also be visible, but times and positions will vary, check a local reference or use a planetarium program to verify event details for your location.)

— Find out more:

Andrew Cooper: darkerview.com/darkview 

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

 

Quantcast