Home > Ephemeris Program, Meteor Shower, Observing > 04/30/2020 – Ephemeris – See bits of Halley’s Comet in the morning crashing into the Earth’s atmosphere

04/30/2020 – Ephemeris – See bits of Halley’s Comet in the morning crashing into the Earth’s atmosphere

April 30, 2020

This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Thursday, April 30th. Today the Sun will be up for 14 hours and 13 minutes, setting at 8:47, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:32. The Moon, at first quarter today, will set at 3:47 tomorrow morning.

Do you remember seeing Halley’s Comet back in 1986? The actual pronunciation is “Hawley’s”, according to Sir Edmund’s contemporary Samuel Pepys. The reason I asked is whether you saw it in 1986 or are young enough to live long enough to see it in 41 years, we all have a twice yearly chance to see bits of Halley’s Comet, shed in previous returns through the inner solar system and strewn along its orbit, burn up in Earth’s atmosphere as the Eta Aquariid meteor shower going on now, or the Orionids in late October. The time to see the meteor shower is in the early morning after the Moon sets. That’s after 3:47 a.m. tomorrow morning and 4:22 Saturday morning. Astronomical twilight starts about 4:40 a.m. It will probably be 5 a.m. before it really interferes. With the meteors all over the sky, coming from the southeast.

The event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.

Addendum

Eta Aquarid radiant

The Eta Aquariid radiant at the peak of the shower. The radiant moves slowly to the east with time. Credit: my LookingUp program.

Halley's Comet Orbit and meteor showers

Halley’s Comet orbit with the orbits of the inner planets showing the points at which the debris from the comet intersect with the Earth’s orbit causing meteor showers. Diagram credit JPL Small-Body Database Browser with my annotations.

Categories: Ephemeris Program, Meteor Shower, Observing Tags: ,