May Eta Aquarids Meteor Shower

Are you an early morning person? I mean a really early morning person? If you want to catch a glimpse of a few meteors blazing across the sky, then set your clock alarm for 3:00 am on Wednesday, May 6. A couple of hours before dawn on that morning is the scheduled peak of the annual Eta Aquarid meteor shower. Hopefully it will be a mild morning of observing you can enjoy while listening to a chorus of springtime peepers.

Normally I would suggest you wake a little earlier to lengthen your duration of viewing, but unfortunately a waxing gibbous Moon won’t set until about 3:30 am. Prior to that time it will overshadow many of the dimmer shooting stars.

One helpful fact is that the constellation Aquarius, from where the meteors will appear to radiate, only rises low in the east-southeast around 2:30 am. Therefore, it is completely opposite the Moon in the sky. As the morning progresses, Aquarius will continue to rise higher, and with it, the number of meteors should increase as well. If you are not sure where Aquarius is located, bright Jupiter, which also rises around 2:30 am, is in nearby Capricornus. Concentrate your gaze in that general direction.

This stream of particles was shed by Comet Halley and left in orbit about the Sun. Every year the Earth passes through this meteor stream. As I mentioned last year, astronomers believe we may see a dramatic increase in the number of meteors during the peak time for this year and next. However, the bright Moon will certainly diminish the numbers that can be seen.

Despite astronomers’ forecast of a potential for more meteors, here in New England we most likely will see closer to the normal rate of about 15-20 meteors per hour at peak time around 4:00 am. Why? Aquarius will not be very high in the sky, and this shower is best seen from the Southern Hemisphere. In fact, it is that hemisphere’s best shower of the year.

Dawn comes early in May, so your observing window is going to be very short. But if the weather cooperates consider spending a beautiful mid-spring morning watching for a few shooting stars to fall from the sky at 41 miles per second. These swift and yellow meteors often leave long persisting dust trains behind them as they disintegrate in the Earth’s upper atmosphere. Good luck and good observing.

I’d like provide a quick update on the planet Saturn. During nights of great seeing in late March and early April, visitors to Seagrave Observatory in North Scituate and Ladd Observatory in Providence were treated to some exquisite views of this beautiful planet. On a recent Tuesday night (March 31) at Ladd, Saturn looked like a picture through the 12-inch Brashear refractor telescope. The rings were only about three degrees from the horizontal or edge-on, but you could still see them perfectly. And the disk of Saturn itself glowed with a wonderful hue of yellow, while banding in his cloud tops was most apparent. The seeing was so steady that we “cranked up” the magnification to about 392 power. Despite the rings’ low inclination, we could still see “space” between the sphere of Saturn and the rings on both sides of the planet. It was picture perfect.

Generally speaking seeing conditions don’t often allow us to use very high magnification, so that Tuesday night was very special. And about a week before that, the 8 _-inch Alvan Clark refractor at Seagrave Observatory also showed a steady view of this magnificently ringed world. It is quite amazing one can still see the rings at all when they are only tilted so slightly.

Imagine a hill that only had a slope of three degrees. Would you even notice it? I think not! In May the rings open up a little to just over four degrees. Then afterwards, until Saturn is lost in the Sun’s glare during August, the rings will begin to close up. We’ll be observing Saturn every opportunity we get. You will have until then to see if you can experience a perfect view of Saturn yourself. And unfortunately we will not be able to view Saturn at the moment his rings appear edge-on on September 4.

Please accept an invitation to visit Seagrave Observatory (http:/www.theskyscrapers.org) in North Scituate or Ladd Observatory (http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Physics/Ladd/) in Providence to observe beautiful Saturn through the wonderful antique telescopes at each facility. Check out their websites for the public night schedules.

I hope you pick an evening when Saturn and his rings can be seen in all their beauty.

Keep your eyes to the skies.