If the skies remain clear across Greater Manchester this weekend, star gazers could be in for a treat.

The Eta Aquarid meteor shower, which occurs from roughly late April to mid-May, offers a long stretch of spectacular “shooting stars” that even a casual observer can spot in the night sky. The meteor shower will peak overnight, today and tomorrow.

To observers on the ground, the meteors appear to originate from Eta Aquarii, one of the brighter stars in the constellation Aquarius.

The Eta Aquarids are associated with debris from Halley’s Comet, but their path separated from the comet long ago, hence their appearance in the sky at this time of the year.

They won’t produce as many meteors per hour as the more famous Perseid meteor shower in August, but they are just as bright, if not brighter. The meteoroids, actual dust grains, are about a millimeter across, and there’s no chance that they’ll hit the ground, being too small and move too fast to endure the plunge through Earth’s atmosphere.

 

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