The η-aquariids (Eta Aquariids) shower is weak meteor shower that is active between April 19 and May 28 every year and peaks on the 5-6 of May.
Where and how to watch?
The meteors from this shower will appear to originate from a point in the constellation Aquarius. The shower is named after the brightest star of the constellation, η-Aqr (Eta Aquarii). It is visible from both the hemispheres, but the shower favors the Southern Hemisphere and is the southern hemisphere’s best meteor shower of the year. At mid-northern latitudes, these meteors don’t fall so abundantly.
For the Eta Aquariids, the radiant reaches the highest point in the nighttime sky just before dawn. That’s why you can expect to see the most meteors in the early morning hours. The best time to watch these fast and often bright meteors is in the hour or two before the onset of morning twilight.
The Radiant
The meteors will be visible between 19th April and 28th may but the numbers (rate) will peak on 5th-6th May this year with a small number of meteors every hour. The shower is expected to reach peak activity at around 08:00 IST on 6 May 2021. This makes the morning of 6 May, the best time to watch a large number of meteors as the radiant rises from the ENE direction.
The Radiant for this Meteor shower lies very next to the Water Jar Asterism formed by the brightest stars of Aquarius.
To see the most meteors, the best place to look is not directly at the radiant itself, but at any dark patch of sky which is around 30–40° away from it. It is at around this distance from the radiant that the most meteors will be seen.
Observation predictions
At its peak, the shower is expected to produce a rate of around 40-55 meteors per hour (ZHR). However, this zenithal hourly rate is calculated assuming a perfectly dark sky and that the radiant of the shower is situated directly overhead. Any real observing sight will fall short of these ideal conditions and therefore the predicted number of meteors may not appear from this meteor shower’s peak.
Since the moon is very close to the radiant on 6 May, the visibility will be reduced. In southern hemisphere we may expect to see 20 -30 meteors per hour. But in the northern hemisphere the number goes down to its half.
The velocity of the Meteors is estimated to be 66 km/s and the population index of the meteor shower is 2 (The population index refers to the magnitude distribution of the meteorites, the smaller the index, the brighter the meteors are; the higher, the dimmer the meteors are).
Origin of the shower
Meteor showers occur when the Earth passes through streams of debris left behind in the wake of comets and asteroids. Over time, these pieces of debris in these streams distribute themselves along the length of the parent object’s orbit.
The famous Halley’s Comet is the source of the Eta Aquariids meteor shower. Every year, our planet Earth crosses the orbital path of Halley’s Comet first in late April and May and a second time in October. This creates the Orionid meteor shower, which peaks around October 20.
During these periods in a year the Earth’s orbit passes through particularly dense stream of debris. This gives rise to an annual meteor shower. Such showers recur on an annual basis, every time the Earth passes the particular point in its orbit where it crosses the particular stream of material.
The meteors that are associated with any particular meteor shower can be differentiated from others because their paths appear to radiate outwards from a common point. This point is called the Radiant.
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