Astroblog

The New Moon is Thursday May 29. Jupiter is low in the early evening sky. Mercury is low in the evening sky below Jupiter. The crescent Moon is close to Mercury on May 30, and Jupiter on June 1. Mars and Saturn are prominent in the evening sky.  Venus is prominent in the morning sky.

The New Moon is Thursday May 29. The Moon is at apogee on June 3.

Evening sky on Saturday May 31 looking north-west as seen from Adelaide at 18:00 pm ACST in South Australia. Jupiter is above the north-western horizon, Mercury is just above the horizon. The crescent Moon lies between them Similar views will be seen elsewhere at the equivalent local time (click to embiggen).

At 6:00 pm if you have a level horizon free of obstructions, you can see four bright planets strung out across the sky, Mercury just above the horizon, Jupiter above that, Mars high in the northern sky and Saturn rising in the west. 

Mercury is low in the evening sky in the western twilight.  Mercury is visited by the crescent Moon on the 30th.

Jupiter is low to the horizon when twilight ends. Jupiter sets around 20:30, telescopic observation is not really worthwhile now.

In the early evening Jupiter is above the north-western horizon between the bright stars Castor and Pollux, the twins of Gemini, and the bright red star Betelgeuse. Jupiter is quite easy to see as the brightest object above the western horizon in the early evening. In the early evening the sight of bright Jupiter sinking to the west, and bright Mars (still not as bright as Jupiter though) to the north and Saturn rising in the east is quite beautiful.

Jupiter's Moons are readily visible in binoculars. Jupiter is close to the crescent Moon on June 1. 

Mars  is easily seen in the northern evening sky. It is highest in the sky around 20:30. Mars was at opposition, when it is biggest and brightest, on the 9th of April, and is still  readily distinguishable as the bright red/orange object above the northern evening horizon. Mars is in the constellation of Virgo near the brightish star Porrima, not far from the bright star Spica. Mars is well worthwhile looking at in a telescope now, although you will need a decent one to see any detail.

Saturn is rising higher in the evening sky, and was at opposition on the 11th. Saturn is visible all night long. Saturn is high enough from around 10 pm for decent telescopic observation (see below).  Saturn is in Libra near the head of the constellation of the Scorpion and forms a triangle with the two brightest stars of Libra, its apex pointing towards the head of the Scorpion.

Morning sky on Saturday May 31 looking east as seen from Adelaide at 5:00 am ACST.   Similar views will be seen throughout Australia at equivalent local times. (click to embiggen).

Venus is in the morning sky, above the eastern horizon.  The brightest object in the morning sky, it is now easy to see and although it is past maximum brightness, it will dominate the morning sky for some time to come.

 Venus was at its furthest distance from the Sun on the 23rd of March, and now will begin to slowly sink towards the horizon. Venus is a clear  gibbous Moon shape in a telescope and is visited by the crescent Moon on the 26th.
Evening sky on Saturday May 31 looking east as seen from Adelaide at 18:00 pm ACST in South Australia. The inset shows the telescopic views of Saturn and Mars at this time.

The asteroids Vesta and Ceres are just below Mars, however, now only Vesta remains visible in binoculars. Similar views will be seen elsewhere at the equivalent local time (click to embiggen).

The bright asteroid 4 Vesta is visible in binoculars in the evening sky. While Vesta is easily seen in binoculars, you will need to watch the same patch of sky in binoculars for a couple of nights to identify it by its movement. Ceres is is now too dim to see with binoculars. See here for a printable black and white map suitable for seeing seeing Vesta and Ceres.

There are lots of interesting things in the sky to view with a telescope. Especially with Mars and Venus and Saturn so prominent in the sky.  If you don't have a telescope, now is a good time to visit one of your local astronomical societies open nights or the local planetariums.

Printable PDF maps of the Eastern sky at 10 pm AEST, Western sky at 10 pm AEST. For further details and more information on what's up in the sky, see Southern Skywatch.

Cloud cover predictions can be found at SkippySky.

Labels: weekly sky

The New Moon is Thursday May 29. Jupiter is low in the early evening sky. Mercury is low in the evening sky below Jupiter. Mars and Saturn are prominent in the evening sky.  Venus is prominent in the morning sky and is visited by the Moon on the 26th. The asteroid Vesta is visible in binoculars.

The New Moon is Thursday May 29. 

Evening sky on Sunday May 25 looking north-west as seen from Adelaide at 18:00 pm ACST in South Australia. Jupiter is above the north-western horizon, Mercury is just above the horizon. Similar views will be seen elsewhere at the equivalent local time (click to embiggen).

At 6:00 pm if you have a level horizon free of obstructions, you can see four bright planets strung out across the sky, Mercury just above the horizon, Jupiter above that, Mars high in the northern sky and Saturn rising in the west. 

Mercury is low in the evening sky in the western twilight.  Mercury is at its greatest distance from the Sun on the 25th, but you will still need a clear level horizon to see it properly.


Jupiter is low to the horizon when twilight ends. Jupiter sets around 20:30, telescopic observation is not really worthwhile now.

In the early evening Jupiter is above the north-western horizon between the bright stars Castor and Pollux, the twins of Gemini, and the bright red star Betelgeuse. Jupiter is quite easy to see as the brightest object above the western horizon in the early evening. In the early evening the sight of bright Jupiter sinking to the west, and bright Mars (still not as bright as Jupiter though) to the north and Saturn rising in the east is quite beautiful.

Jupiter's Moons are readily visible in binoculars.

Jupiter is very close to the moderately bright star Wasat on the 23rd. 

Mars  is easily seen in the northern evening sky. It is highest in the sky around 20:40. Mars was at opposition, when it is biggest and brightest, on the 9th of April, and is still  readily distinguishable as the bright red/orange object above the northern evening horizon. Mars is in the constellation of Virgo near the brightish star Porrima, not far from the bright star Spica. Mars is well worthwhile looking at in a telescope now, although you will need a decent one to see any detail.

Saturn is rising higher in the evening sky, and was at opposition on the 11th. Saturn is visible all night long. Saturn is high enough from around 10 pm for decent telescopic observation (see below).  Saturn is in Libra near the head of the constellation of the Scorpion and forms a triangle with the two brightest stars of Libra, its apex pointing towards the head of the Scorpion.


Morning sky on Monday May 26 looking east as seen from Adelaide at 5:30 am ACST showing the crescent Moon close to Venus.   Similar views will be seen throughout Australia at equivalent local times. (click to embiggen).

Venus is in the morning sky, above the eastern horizon.  The brightest object in the morning sky, it is now easy to see and although it is past maximum brightness, it will dominate the morning sky for some time to come.

 Venus was at its furthest distance from the Sun on the 23rd of March, and now will begin to slowly sink towards the horizon. Venus is a clear  gibbous Moon shape in a telescope and is visited by the crescent Moon on the 26th.

Evening sky on Saturday May 24 looking north as seen from Adelaide at 22:00 pm ACST in South Australia. The inset shows the telescopic views of Saturn and Mars at this time.

The asteroids Vesta and Ceres are just below Mars, however, now only Vesta remains visible in binoculars. Similar views will be seen elsewhere at the equivalent local time (click to embiggen).

The bright asteroid 4 Vesta is visible in binoculars in the evening sky. While Vesta is easily seen in binoculars, you will need to watch the same patch of sky in binoculars for a couple of nights to identify it by its movement. Ceres is is now too dim to see with binoculars. See here for a printable black and white map suitable for seeing seeing Vesta and Ceres.

There are lots of interesting things in the sky to view with a telescope. Especially with Mars and Venus and Saturn so prominent in the sky.  If you don't have a telescope, now is a good time to visit one of your local astronomical societies open nights or the local planetariums.

Printable PDF maps of the Eastern sky at 10 pm AEST, Western sky at 10 pm AEST. For further details and more information on what's up in the sky, see Southern Skywatch.

Cloud cover predictions can be found at SkippySky.

Labels: weekly sky

Images of the occultation of Saturn (Wednesday 14 May, 2014) taking using my 8" Newtonian telescope, Don. Images acquired as video (60 seconds) with a Phillips ToUCam and Vega image acquisition, then processed with Registax 3 (click to embiggen). I almost missed ingress, because the webcam chip rotated the orientation of the image as seen through the eyepiece, and I was desperately searching for Saturn on the wrong side of the Moon!

I did catch it in time to get a nice  sequence of the ingress, some of which are shown above and I made an animation (seen to the left).

I haven't processed all the images as it takes forever on the elderly laptop. Later on I will boot it up again and copy all the files over and do a smoother animation.

Completely missed egress as once again I forgot that the webcam reversed the Lunar orientation. By the time I had worked out which side Saturn should come out, I had missed it.

Despite prefect clear skies the atmospheric turbulence was something awful, so Saturn is not as crisp as I would like. The widefield images with the 4" scope are crisper.

Still, AWESOME occultation, next time I hope I can convince the kids to come out and watch (next time I'll be ready with egress maps so I know which side everything is on).

Labels: Moon, Occultation, Saturn

Images of the occultation of Saturn (Wednesday 14 May, 2014) taking using my 4" Newtonian telescope, with a "Point and Shoot" Canon IXUS attached with inifinty to infinity focussing, 3xZoom, and a 25mm eye piece. Click to embiggen.

The evening rolled around clear and bright. In between organising dinner for the boys, I dragged out the scopes to cool and tries to set them up efficiently. I was using the 4" Newtonian to run wide field shots with the point and click, and Don the 8" Newtonian for the close-up webcam.

The main issue is that it had been so long since I had done anything with the 8" scope (bad weather and lack of opportunity), finding all the bits and pieces while cooking took time. Especially since the laptop I use to run the webacm has no screen, and I have to use a separate screen which had been borrowed by MiddleOne, then finding the only memory stick that would work on the laptop (it is so old it can't handle anything over 2Gb).

But get set up I did, and feed the kids, and organised the dish-washing and all, then headed out for the occultation. I spent most of my time trying to get Saturn in the field of view of Don the 8" but I got these shots in the run up to the high resolution run on Don (actually, I got a lot more, but these are the best).

Occultation of Saturn, awesome... Now to finish of the high resolution images. (You can see them here now)

Labels: Moon, Occultation, Saturn

Shot of Saturn going behind the Moon live off Camera. I will process them after reappearance

The Last Quarter Moon is Wednesday May 21. Jupiter is low in the early evening sky. Mars and Saturn are prominent in the evening sky. Mercury returns to the evening sky. Venus is prominent in the morning sky. The asteroids Vesta and Ceres are visible in binoculars.

The Last Quarter Moon is Wednesday May 21. The Moon is at perigee (closest to Earth) on the 18th.

Evening sky on Sunday May 18 looking north-west as seen from Adelaide at 18:00 pm ACST in South Australia. Jupiter is above the north-western horizon, Mercury is just clearing the horizon. The inset shows Jupiter's Moons at this time. Similar views will be seen elsewhere at the equivalent local time (click to embiggen).

Mercury returns to the evening sky low in the western twilight.  By the end of the week is is reasonably high in the twilight.



Jupiter is low to the horizon when twilight ends. Jupiter sets around 20:45, so there is a very short time for good telescopic observation now.

In the early evening it is above the north-western horizon between the bright stars Castor and Pollux, the twins of Gemini, and the bright red star Betelgeuse. Jupiter is quite easy to see as the brightest object in the entire sky in the early evening. In the early evening the sight of bright Jupiter sinking to the west, and bright Mars (still not as bright as Jupiter though) rising in the east is quite beautiful.
Jupiter's Moons are readily visible in binoculars.

Jupiter comes very close to the moderately bright star Wasat by the 22nd. 

Mars  is easily seen in the northern evening sky. It is highest in the sky around 21:00. Mars was at opposition, when it is biggest and brightest, on the 9th of April, and is still  readily distinguishable as the bright red/orange object above the northern evening horizon. Mars is in the constellation of Virgo near the brightish star Porrima, not far from the bright star Spica. Mars is well worthwhile looking at in a telescope now, although you will need a decent one to see any detail.

Saturn is rising higher in the evening sky, and was at opposition on the 11th. Saturn is now visible all night long. Saturn is high enough from around 10 pm for decent telescopic observation (see below).  Saturn is in Libra near the head of the constellation of the Scorpion. Saturn forms a triangle with the two brightest stars of Libra, its apex pointing towards the head of the Scorpion.


Morning sky on Saturday May 18 looking east as seen from Adelaide at 5:00 am ACST.   Similar views will be seen throughout Australia at equivalent local times. (click to embiggen).

Venus is in the morning sky, above the eastern horizon.  The brightest object in the morning sky, it is now easy to see and although it is past maximum brightness, it will dominate the morning sky for some time to come.

 Venus was at its furthest distance from the Sun on the 23rd of March, and now will begin to slowly sink towards the horizon. Venus is a clear  gibbous Moon shape.



Evening sky on Saturday May 18 looking north as seen from Adelaide at 22:00 pm ACST in South Australia. The inset show the telescopic views of Saturn and Mars at this time.

The asteroids Vesta and Ceres are just below Mars, and  visible in binoculars. Similar views will be seen elsewhere at the equivalent local time (click to embiggen).

Two bright asteroids are visible in binoculars in the evening sky. 1 Ceres and 4 Vesta. Unfortunately the waning  Moon means that these asteroids will be difficult to see this week. While Vesta is easily seen in binoculars, you will need to watch the same patch of sky in binoculars for a couple of nights to identify it by its movement. Ceres is now fading from magnitude 7, but is still in the range of 10x50 binoculars. See here for a printable black and white map suitable for seeing seeing Vesta and Ceres.

There are lots of interesting things in the sky to view with a telescope. Especially with Mars and Venus and Saturn so prominent in the sky.  If you don't have a telescope, now is a good time to visit one of your local astronomical societies open nights or the local planetariums.

Printable PDF maps of the Eastern sky at 10 pm AEDST, Western sky at 10 pm AEST. For further details and more information on what's up in the sky, see Southern Skywatch.

Cloud cover predictions can be found at SkippySky.

Labels: weekly sky

Carnival of Space #352 has been up for a while now, but I've just noticed (sorry, it's been one of those week, flu, grants to finish reviewing, conference presentations). There's LADEE's crash on the Moon, asteroids vs your hometown, cold Brown Dwarfs and Stargates. Jump on over and have a read.

Labels: carnival of space

The Moon at 8:02 pm ACST in Adelaide on 14 May just before the Moon covers Saturn. Similar views will be seen elsewhere at the equivalent local time. Click to embiggen.

Don't forget, the Moon occults Saturn on the early evening of Wednesday May 14. It will be easy to work out where to look, the Moon is very obvious signpost  and Saturn will be the brightest object near the Moon. Start watching about half an hour before hand.

Full timings, observing hints and links are available at my occultation of Saturn  site.

Labels: Moon, Occultation, Saturn

The Full Moon is Thursday May 15. Jupiter is the brightest object in the early evening sky. Mars is prominent in the evening sky and the Moon is close to Mars on the 11th. Saturn is at opposition on the 11th, when it is biggest and brightest as seen from Earth. The Moon occults Saturn on the 14th. Venus is prominent in the morning sky. The eta Aquariid meteor shower is visible on the mornings of the 8-9 May. The asteroids Vesta and Ceres are visible in binoculars.

The Full Moon is Thursday May 15. The Moon occults Saturn on May 14 (see below).


Evening sky on Sunday May 4 looking north-west as seen from Adelaide at 20:00 pm ACST in South Australia. Jupiter is above the north-western horizon. The crescent Moon is close by. The inset shows Jupiter's Moons at this time. Similar views will be seen elsewhere at the equivalent local time (click to embiggen).

Jupiter is in the constellation Gemini and is the brightest object in the early evening sky. Jupiter is becoming harder and harder to observe as it sets earlier.

Jupiter is high enough to begin observing telescopically when twilight ends. Jupiter sets around 21:00, so there is only a couple of hours for good telescopic observation now.

In the early evening it is above the north-western horizon between the bright stars Castor and Pollux, the twins of Gemini, and the bright red star Betelgeuse. Jupiter is quite easy to see as the brightest object in the entire sky in the early evening. In the early evening the sight of bright Jupiter sinking to the west, and bright Mars (still not as bright as Jupiter though) rising in the east is quite beautiful.
Jupiter's Moons are readily visible in binoculars.

Mars  is easily seen in the evening, rising as Jupiter is setting. It is highest in the sky around 21:30. Mars was at opposition, when it is biggest and brightest, on the 9th of April, and is still  readily distinguishable as the bright red/orange object above the north-eastern evening horizon. Mars is in the constellation of Virgo near the brightish star Porrima, not far from the bright star Spica. Mars is well worthwhile looking at in a telescope now, although you will need a decent one to see any detail.

The Moon is close to Mars on the 11th.

Saturn is rising higher in the evening sky, and is at opposition on the 11th. This is wehn Saturn is closest and brightest as seen from Earth. Saturn is now visible all night long. Saturn is high enough from around 11 pm for decent telescopic observation (see below).  Saturn is in Libra near the head of the constellation of the Scorpion. Saturn forms a triangle with the two brightest stars of Libra, its apex pointing towards the head of the Scorpion. On the evening of the 14th Saturn is occulted by the Moon (see below).

Morning sky on Thursday May 8 looking east as seen from Adelaide at 5:00 am ACST.  The radiant of the eta Aquariid meteor shower is shown.   Similar views will be seen throughout Australia at equivalent local times. (click to embiggen).

Venus is in the morning sky, above the eastern horizon.  The brightest object in the morning sky, it is now easy to see and although it is past maximum brightness, it will dominate the morning sky for some time to come.

 Venus was at its furthest distance from the Sun on the 23rd of March, and now will begin to slowly sink towards the horizon. Venus is a clear  gibbous Moon shape.

Mercury is lost in the twilight.

The eta Aquariids meteor shower, the debris from Halleys comet, peaked on May 6 UT . However, good rates will be seen from Australia on the 8th and 9th.

People in the suburbs should see a meteor around once every 6 minutes, and in the country about once every 3 minutes. The radiant of the shower is about five handspans up from the eastern horizon, and three handspans to the left of due east at 4 am, just above and to the left of rising Venus  (see spotter chart at 5 am above).

When looking, be sure to let your eyes adjust for at least 5 minutes so your eyes can be properly adapted to the dark. Don't look directly at the radiant site, because the meteors will often start their "burn" some distance from it, but around a handspan up or to the side. Be patient, although you should see an average of a meteor every six to three minutes, a whole stretch of time can go by without a meteor, then a whole bunch turn up one after the other.

For more details and viewing hints see my eta Aquariid site.


Evening sky on Wednesday May 14 looking east as seen from Adelaide at 20:00 pm ACST in South Australia.  Saturn is just about to go behind the Moon. The inset show the telescopic views of Saturn  at this time.

On the evening of Wednesday 14 May Saturn is occulted by the Moon as seen from the most of Australia (and all of New Zealand).

The Moon is a very obvious signpost where look and Saturn will be the brightest object near the Moon. Start watching about half an hour before hand to get set up and familiar with the sky. The occultation is early enough so that kids can get involved. Why not have a star party in your back yard?

The occultation starts around 21:00 eastern time, 20:00 central time  and 18:26 Western time. For exact time from many cities and observing hints, see my Saturn Occultation site.

The asteroids Vesta and Ceres are just below Mars, and easily visible in binoculars. Similar views will be seen elsewhere at the equivalent local time (click to embiggen).

Two bright asteroids are now visible in binoculars in the evening sky. 1 Ceres and 4 Vesta. Vesta  is now bright enough to be just visible to the unaided eye in dark sky locations.Unfortunately the waxing Moon means that it will not be visible to the unaided eye this week. While Vesta is easily seen in binoculars, you will need to watch the same patch of sky in binoculars for a couple of nights to identify it by its movement. Ceres never gets brighter than magnitude 7, but is easily in the range of 10x50 binoculars. See here for a printable black and white map suitable for seeing seeing Vesta and Ceres.

There are lots of interesting things in the sky to view with a telescope. Especially with Jupiter, Mars and Venus so prominent in the sky, and Saturn coming into view.  If you don't have a telescope, now is a good time to visit one of your local astronomical societies open nights or the local planetariums.

Printable PDF maps of the Eastern sky at 10 pm AEDST, Western sky at 10 pm AEST. For further details and more information on what's up in the sky, see Southern Skywatch.

Cloud cover predictions can be found at SkippySky.

Labels: weekly sky

The Moon at 8:02 pm ACST in Adelaide on 14 May just before the Moon covers Saturn. Similar views will be seen elsewhere at the equivalent local time. See table below for exact local times. Click to embiggen.	Telescopic view of the occultation. Saturns' giant moon Titan is just about to go behind the Moon. Simulated in Stellarium. Click to embiggen.

On the evening of Wednesday 14 May Saturn is occulted by the Moon as seen from the most of Australia (and all of New Zealand). This is the second of these rare occultations, and is under reasonable dark skies, rather than daylight like last time.

The Moon is a very obvious signpost where look and Saturn will be the brightest object near the Moon. Start watching about half an hour before hand to get set up and familiar with the sky.

Although this event is easily seen with the unaided eye, it is best seen in a small telescope so you can see the ringed world in detail as it vanishes behind the Moon. Saturn's moon Titan will be occulted before Saturn, so you can see the Moon occult a moon.

The occultation occurs in the early evening with the Moon will be reasonably high above the north east horizon, a good time to show the kids this event. The Moon easily visible and a ready signpost to Saturn. It is advisable to set up and practise on the Moon a day or so before the event, so you are familar with your telescope set-up.

Set up at least half an hour ahead of time so that you can be sure everything is working well and you can watch the entire event comfortably (trying to focus your telescope on Saturn moments before the occultation will cause a lot of unnecessary stress). Saturn will be clearly visible in a telescope or binoculars near the Moon.

Place	Disappears Dark Limb	Reappears Bright Limb
Adelaide ACST	20:09	21:17
Brisbane AEST	21:05	21:35
Canberra AEST	20:53	22:00
Darwin ACST	20:06 (graze)	-
Hobart AEST	20:59	22:11
Melbourne AEST	20:50	22:00
Perth AWST	18:26	19:24
Sydney AEST	20:56	21:59

More cities in Australia and New Zealand cities can be found at the IOTA site (UT times only).

Labels: Moon, Occultation, Saturn

Comet C/2012 K1 PanSTARRS near the M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy. Image taken with iTelescope T14 on 30-04-14. 10x60 second luminance images stacked with ImageJ and SUMMED. Click to embiggen	Image taken with iTelescope T14 on 01-05-14. 10x60 second luminance images and 60 seconds RBG in BIN 2. Stacked with ImageJ and then made into an RBG image using the compose function.Click to embiggen
Image taken with iTelescope T14 on 2-05-14. 6x60 second luminance images stacked with DeepSky Stacker (which is why the image is inverted from the other 3).	Image taken with iTelescope T14 on 3-05-14. 10x60 second luminance images stacked with ImageJ and SUMMED. Click to embiggen

Comet C/2012 K1 PanSTARRS is quite bright at the moment, by cometary standards. It is around magnitude 9 (just below binocular brightness but in the range of small telescopes). Currently it is only visible in the northern hemisphere, near the Big Dipper.

Close up crop of the images from the 30th, showing (faintly) the two tails of comet C/2012 K1. This is a median stack in image J.	Animated GIF, also of  the 30th, showing all the passing satellites, as well as the comets movement.

Over the past few days the comet has passed M51, the iconic Whirlpool galaxy. This made for some nice compositions in the iTelescope widefield instrument T14. I even tried some colour compositions, but sadly I am not very good at colour.

Still, I got some nice shots with good detail in the galaxy and the comet large enough to make the field interesting (the differing backgrounds are due to different attempts to bring out detail in the cometary tail). In close up you can even see the two tails of the comet. I may try and make a large scale animation later.

This is not the end of the comets encounters, from 11-13 May the brightening comet is close to galaxy M106 and a host of smaller galaxies. Should be very nice to watch.

Labels: comet, iTelescope

Labels: public outreach, Radio

Morning sky on Wednesday May 7 looking east as seen from Adelaide at 5:00 am ACST.  The radiant of the eta Aquariid meteor shower is shown.   Similar views will be seen elsewhere in Australia at the equivalent local time. (click to embiggen).


The eta Aquariids meteor shower, the debris from Halleys comet, peaks on May 6 at 07 UT (that's 5 pm AEST and 4:30 pm ACST, disappointingly in daytime) with a ZHR of 55. However, the shower radiant rises around 2 am, so you can't see the shower until the morning of Tuesday the 7th.

The figure ZHR is zenithal hourly rate. This is the number of meteors that a single observer would see per hour if the shower's "point of origin", or radiant, were at the zenith and the sky were dark enough for 6.5-magnitude stars to be visible to the naked eye.

In practise, you will never see this many meteors as the radiant will be some distance below the zenith. Also, unless you are out deep in the countryside, the darkness will be less than ideal. How many are you likely to see in reality? I discuss this further down, lets talk about when to see them first.

Although the actual peak is on 6th at 17:00 AEST, for Australia the best time to see the eta-Aquarids is in the early morning of the 7th, 8th and 9th. This year the first quarter Moon sets long before the radiant rises, so you should have almost ideal observing conditions if the cloud stays away.

How many will be seen on the 7th is not clear, but very good rates were seen last year, and dark sky sites may possibly see one meteor every two minutes or so. There were many bright ones reported with persistent trains. People in the suburbs may be will see less, but at least one every 6 minutes should be possible.

People in the suburbs should see a meteor around once every 6 minutes, and in the country about once every 3 minutes on the 7th, a bit more on the 8th and around the same rates as the 7th on the 9th. The radiant of the shower is about five handspans up from the eastern horizon, and three handspans to the left of due east at 4 am (see above for a spotter chart at 5 am).

When looking, be sure to let your eyes adjust for at least 5 minutes so your eyes can be properly adapted to the dark. Don't look directly at the radiant site, because the meteors will often start their "burn" some distance from it, but around a handspan up or to the side. Be patient, although you should see an average of a meteor every six to three minutes, a whole stretch of time can go by without a meteor, then a whole bunch turn up one after the other.

Make yourself comfortable, choose an observing site that has little to obstruct the eastern horizon, have a comfortable chair to sit in (a banana lounger is best), or blankets and pillows. Rug up against the cold.  A hot Thermos of something to drink and plenty of mosquito protection will complete your observing preparations. As well as meteors, keep an eye out for satellites (see Heavens Above for predictions from your site).


The sky will also be particularly beautiful, with the Milky Way stretching over the sky and constellation of Scorpius gracing the north-western sky. The radiant is not far above Venus, so you will have an attractive eastern horizon.

Use the NASA  meteor shower flux estimator for an estimate of what the shower will be like from your location (you may need to enter your longitude and latitude, surprisingly, while Adelaide and Brisbane are hard wired in, Sydney and Melbourne are not).

You need to choose 31 Eta Aquariids and remember to set the date to 7-8 or 8-9 May 2014. You can follow the progress of the shower at the IMO live Aquariid site.

Cloud cover predictions can be found at SkippySky.

Labels: Meteors