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The broad peak of the eta Aquariid (ETA) meteor shower is expected around May 6. Their radiant doesn’t rise until the early hours, when observers have only a brief window to see them whilst competing with the onset of dawn and also this year the bright Moon just after Full.
Tracie Heywood has aptly described them in ‘The Astronomer’ magazine as almost a daytime-only shower for meteor observers in the British Isles. More southerly latitudes are favoured, where their ZHR can reach 100; expect to see only a few per hour from our latitudes.
ETAs are debris from comet 1P/Halley and in May we encounter the meteoroid stream’s descending node. They produce swift meteors, travelling at 66 km/s, and because their radiant is close to the horizon they often present impressive long-pathed meteors streaking across the sky as they hit the atmosphere at shallow angles.
https://britastro.org/observations/observation.php?id=20210503_150536_249a3e61e44d9379
Alex.
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