Space apps: [ Ссылка ]
It's May 2021, and it's time for the Eta-Aquarid meteor shower that will peak in the early hours of May 6. The Eta-Aquarids is an annual meteor shower that occurs when the Earth passes through the debris field of comet Halley that visits the Earth every 76 years.
Annual meteor showers occur when the Earth passes through a stream of the debris left behind in the wake of comets and asteroids. Over time, the pieces of grit-like debris in these streams distribute themselves along the length of the parent object's orbit around the solar system. Shooting stars are spotted whenever one of these pieces of debris collides with the Earth's atmosphere, typically burning up at an altitude of around 70 to 100 km.
A shower produces its best displays when its radiant is well up in the sky. The radiant of Eta Aquarids lies in the constellation of Aquarius.
Although visible in both hemispheres, this meteor shower is more prominent in the South because Aquarius is a southern constellation. Observers in the south can expect up to 40 meteors per hour. In the north, the shower rate will be ten meteors per hour, depending on your location. In the Northern Hemisphere, Eta Aquarid meteors can more often be seen as "earthgrazers." Earthgrazers are long meteors that appear to skim the surface of the Earth at the horizon.
Since the radiant of this shower rises after midnight, you'll have to be an early bird the catch the shower. Look a little away from the radiant point in the pre-dawn hours of May 6 till the shooting stars are lost to the morning twilight. You can use the space apps given in the description to locate the radiant according to your location. But you don't have to stare at the radiant; look a little away from it.
