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☄️ The Eta Aquariids meteor shower

Best in the last hours before dawn. Active from 19 April to 28 May.

The next peak · in 188 days

6 May 2027 at 15:10 UTC

Up to 50 meteors an hour under a dark sky. The Moon is 0% lit that night. A dark sky: a good year to watch.

The best hours are usually after midnight and before dawn, on the night of the peak and the night before.

The next few years

5 May 2028 at 21:19 UTCMoon 89% lit · Bright moonlight hides all but the brightest meteors.
6 May 2029 at 03:28 UTCMoon 43% lit · Some moonlight, so fewer faint meteors.
6 May 2030 at 09:37 UTCMoon 12% lit · A dark sky: a good year to watch.

At its peak: Up to 50 meteors an hour under a dark sky
Active: 19 April to 28 May
Seems to come from: Aquarius
Where to see it: Best from the southern half of Earth and the tropics
Made by: Dust from Halley’s Comet

How to watch

Get away from city lights if you can, and give your eyes 20 minutes to get used to the dark. Don’t look at your phone.
Lie back and look at a wide stretch of sky. Meteors appear anywhere, though their trails point back to Aquarius.
No telescope or binoculars: they show too little of the sky. Your eyes are best.
“Up to 50 an hour” is for a perfectly dark sky. From a town, expect a fraction of that.

Other meteor showers

All of them

Quadrantids Lyrids Perseids Orionids Leonids Geminids Ursids

Peak dates from the International Meteor Organization’s list of showers, worked out for each year; the Moon worked out with Astronomy Engine. Times are UTC until the page has loaded, then your own time zone.