Don’t Miss The Eta Aquarids Meteor Shower Tonight

We may not be taking actual showers in quarantine, but we can possibly catch a meteor shower tonight.

According to Accu Weather, "The Eta Aquarids" is a yearly meteor shower that happens in early May. This year it will start tonight (Monday, May 4th) through the "pre-dawn hours" of Tuesday morning (May 5th).

The Eta Aquarids is more of a southern hemisphere meteor shower and they will see about 40 shooting stars per hour. For us here in the northern hemisphere, we'll likely see 10 to 30 shooting stars per hour, but right before dawn.

These shooting stars are special. Normally shooting stars are caused by debris left behind by comets, however, the debris for The Eta Aquarids is actually "dust left behind by one of the most famous comets, Halley’s Comet."

Accu Weather explains "Halley’s Comet only orbits the sun once every 75 years, but each year in early May, the Earth passes through some of the debris that it left behind."

According to the Accu Weather map, New York and the Hudson Valley have fair to good viewing conditions for The Eta Aquarids meteor shower tonight.

Will you be watching the skies tonight?