Guest Author - Lea Terry

Maybe you missed Halley's Comet the last time it came around in 1986. Since its next visit is scheduled for 2061, you may not have a chance to see the comet, but you can see some of its offspring, so to speak, when the eta Aquarids meteor shower peaks Monday and Tuesday.

When Halley passed by, it left behind a stream of dust, which the Earth passes through twice a year. In May, these dust flakes are called the eta Aquarids, which is a sister shower to the Orionids, also caused by Halley, and which appear in October. The eta Aquarids are more visible in the Southern Hemisphere, where they could reach 70 meteors per hour; they're also visible in the Northern Hemisphere, though they'll only reach about 30 meteors per hour.

The shower is after Eta Aquarii, a 4th-magnitude star in the constellation Aquarius, which has no connection to the eta Aquarids except that the shower appears to emanate from that location. This year is expected to good for viewing the eta Aquarids, because there's a new moon, so there's less lunar glare to interfere. And, many eta Aquarid meteors are as bright as a third magnitude star. The best time to look for the shower is just before sunrise, and the best place to look is toward the east.

While skywatchers in the Northern Hemisphere may see only a few meteors, they may have a good chance of viewing "Earthgrazers," meteors that stride slowly through the upper atmosphere. The best chance of seeing these comes at between 2 a.m. and 2:30 a.m. local time.