April 2024 – Watch the Skies

Eta Aquariids Outburst This Weekend – Next One in 2046

The eta Aquariid meteor shower should put on a spectacular sky show this year with meteor rates up to one per minute! The typical peak viewing time would normally be the night of May 4 into the morning of May 5. However, due to the outburst, May 2-6 could provide excellent skygazing opportunities.

According to Bill Cooke, who leads the Meteoroid Environment Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, many of the shooting stars we see this year are actually caused by material from Halley’s Comet that is around 3,000 years old. As Earth runs into that debris, we can see streaks of light across the sky. When our planet moves through concentrated clumps of material, we can get a meteor outburst. The next time the eta Aquariids will outburst is about 20 years from now.

A sky full of falling meteors. — Grains of cosmic dust streaked through night skies in early May 2023. Swept up as planet Earth plowed through the debris streams left behind by periodic Comet Halley, the annual meteor shower is known as the Eta Aquarids. Credit: Petr Horalek / Institute of Physics in Opava

Explanation: Grains of cosmic dust streaked through night skies in early May. Swept up as planet Earth plowed through the debris streams left behind by periodic Comet Halley, the annual meteor shower is known as the eta Aquariids. In 2022, the eta Aquariids peak was visually hampered by May’s bright full Moon. But early morning hours surrounding last May’s shower of Halley dust were free of moonlight interference. In exposures recorded between April 28 and May 8 in 2022, this composited image shows nearly 90 eta Aquariid meteors streaking from the shower’s radiant in Aquarius over San Pedro de Atacama, Chile.

To really top off this year’s event, the new Moon aligns with the peak nights, therefore there will be no light interference to obscure the fainter meteors. There’s only one catch with this shower in particular – the best viewing time is from 4 a.m. to dawn. You will be able to see the glowing in the early evening, as the constellation Aquarius does not rise until around 4 a.m. local time. Set the alarm, grab the coffee, and settle in for what should be a magnificent meteor shower experience.

By Lauren Perkins
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center

Enjoy the Warming Weather Under These 3 Upcoming Meteor Showers

Still basking in that post-eclipse celestial glow? We’ve got great news – there is plenty of reasons to look up again and we are here to share in the skywatching excitement as meteor showers top the upcoming headlines.

It’s been a quiet few months for meteors, but the Lyrid meteor shower peaks overnight April 21-22. Unfortunately, the Moon will be at greater than 90% waxing gibbous so a lot of light interference will outshine the fainter meteors. Even under perfect conditions – dark, away from city lights, open view of the sky – only a few meteors per hour are expected to be visible to the naked eye because of the bright Moon. For a dedicated observer, it may still be worth spotting members of one of the oldest known meteor showers – the Lyrids have been observed for 2,700 years!

The Eta Aquarids meteor shower peaks during early May each year. These meteors are known for their speed, which can leave glowing “trains” (incandescent bits of debris in the wake of the meteor) which last for several seconds to minutes. This is expected to be an outburst year, exclaims Bill Cooke, who leads the Meteoroid Environment Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. “Visual rates could be as high as one per minute in the Southern Hemisphere, with just slightly less in the Northern.” The moon will be a waning crescent during its peak overnight May 4-5, so there will not be much moonlight interference.

Cooke is most excited for the Perseid meteor shower in mid-August, “The Perseids are always a stunner and this year, there will be no moonlight to spoil the show.” During its peak overnight August 12-13, about 50 to 100 meteors per hour can be seen! Perseids are also known for their fireballs. Fireballs are larger explosions of light and color that can persist longer than an average meteor streak.

In this 30 second exposure, a meteor streaks across the sky during the annual Perseid meteor shower, Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2021, in Spruce Knob, West Virginia. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Happy skywatching!

By Lauren Perkins
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center

When and How to Spot the ‘Devil Comet’

Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks is one of the brightest known periodic comets. It earned the nickname of “devil comet” in 2023 when an outburst caused the comet to have an asymmetrical appearance, like having horns. It comes around every 71 years and is currently getting brighter as it flies toward the Sun.

As spring approaches for northern skygazers, Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks is growing brighter. Currently visible with small telescopes and binoculars, the Halley-type comet could reach naked eye visibility in the coming weeks. Seen despite a foggy atmosphere, the comet's green coma and long tail hover near the horizon in this well-composed deep night skyscape from Revuca, Slovakia recorded on March 5. M31, also known as the Andromeda galaxy, and bright yellowish star Mirach, second brightest star in the constellation Andromeda, hang in the sky above the comet. The Andromeda galaxy is some 2.5 million light-years beyond the Milky Way. — As spring approaches for northern skygazers, Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks is growing brighter. Currently visible with small telescopes and binoculars, the Halley-type comet could reach naked eye visibility in the coming weeks. Seen despite a foggy atmosphere, the comet’s green coma and long tail hover near the horizon in this well-composed deep night skyscape from Revuca, Slovakia recorded on March 5. M31, also known as the Andromeda galaxy, and bright yellowish star Mirach, second brightest star in the constellation Andromeda, hang in the sky above the comet. The Andromeda galaxy is some 2.5 million light-years beyond the Milky Way.
**Image Credit & Copyright:** Petr Horálek / Institute of Physics in Opava

In the Northern Hemisphere, the comet is best viewed with binoculars or a small telescope – right after the Sun dips below the horizon, look West just beneath the Moon, and just right of Jupiter. An hour after sunset, the comet drops so low, it will be difficult to see without a perfectly clear view of the horizon. The comet then sets an hour later.

Sky chart showing the crescent Moon above Jupiter and Comet 12P in the western sky following sunset on April 10.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Bill Cooke, who leads the Meteoroid Environment Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, encourages viewers to have more realistic expectations about what they might see. “Many images depict a bright comet with a long green tail,” Cooke said. “That’s not going to happen.”

By July, it will be too dim to view even with binoculars.

As for viewing this comet with the naked eye, it might be possible in the coming days, but by mid-April, it will be too close to the Sun and then growing fainter as it makes its way away from the Sun.

The brightest stars are a magnitude 1, the faintest are a magnitude 6. Comet 12P will peak around a magnitude 5 unless an outburst occurs.

However, Cooke warns that outbursts are unpredictable. “There have been minor outbursts roughly once a month but it’s impossible to predict them,” he said. “The last one was on Leap Day, Feb. 29.”

Will the comet be visible during the eclipse?

It is certainly a possibility. If Comet 12P remains around a magnitude 5, it would only be visible in binoculars during the few minutes of totality. Consider enjoying the main spectacle instead of using that time to locate Comet 12P and attempt to view it at another time.

For more skywatching highlights in April, check out Jet Propulsion Lab’s What’s Up series.

By Lauren Perkins
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center