Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Thursday, May 5th.  The sun rises at 6:27.  It’ll be up for 14 hours and 24 minutes, setting at 8:51.   The moon, 2 days past new, will set at 11:35 this evening.

The Eta Aquarid meteor shower is ramping up.  The Eta Aquarids are caused by bits of Halley’s Comet, passing the earth’s orbit heading out from the sun.  The Orionids of late October are debris of Halley’s comet passing the earth’s orbit heading in toward the sun.  It’s the only comet I recollect caused two meteor showers.  The Eta Aquarids are named for the star nearest the radiant of the meteor shower.  The constellation of Aquarius has many shower radiants, which is why the shower is named for a star in Aquarius.  The radiant rises shortly before 3:30 and astronomical twilight begins an hour later.  There’s perhaps another half hour of visibility after that.  The peak will occur tomorrow morning where up to 20 meteors per hour might be seen.

* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan.  They may be different for your location.

Addendum

Eta Aquarid radiant