If you’re looking for an excuse to get out of the house this weekend, the Eta Aquariid meteor shower is back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The meteor shower has the potential to dazzle early birds with around 15 to 20 meteors an hour at its peak depending on where you live in Australia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Eta Aquariid shower is visible during May every year as the Earth moves through the dust and gas left by Halley’s Comet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It’s one of the best meteor showers for the Southern Hemisphere, and the stunning display is ramping up to peak on Monday \u2014 but you’ll have to get up early to see them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Get up early in the morning, watch them over your morning coffee,” Jonti Horner, an astronomer at the University of Southern Queensland says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“It’s one of the ones that suits the early birds rather than the night owls.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Eta Aquariids will peak on the morning of May 6<\/strong>, but astronomers suggest that \u2014 weather permitting \u2014 there should be plenty of meteors each morning from May 5 through to May 8. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This year, the shower corresponds to a new moon<\/strong>, so more meteors per hour will be visible in the darker sky. <\/p>\n\n\n\n “Although the peak is technically on the morning of May 6, there are better rates on May 7 when the tiny slice of the Moon is out of the way,” says amateur astronomer Ian Musgrave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “The rates this year are much better than last year when the nearly full moon was camped near the radiant.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr Musgrave’s predictions for the number of meteors per hour for each capital city is below. <\/p>\n\n\n\n