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The Eta Aquarids Meteor Shower :
This meteor shower is active from April 19th to May 28th 2009. If you would like to see a meteor shower look into the skies for the next few nights...
Gazers south of the eaquator could be in for a full seven days of meteor activity, starting May 3rd the Eta Aquarids will produce up to 30 meteors per hour and become more and more active until their peak on May 6th in the hours before dawn. A viewer could possibly see up to 60 meteors per hour during the peak and steady activity of up to 30 meteors per hour until about May 10th.
The meteors are visible in the evenings, best times to view would be from midnight till dawn in the top left hand side of the skies when your are looking in a southern direction...if you live on the coast..I wish I were you

It's quite amazing to see...enjoy

Hi Bentley,

I presume those of us living in the Northern hemisphere wont be seeing this?

Unfortunately for most people in the northern hemisphere..yes.
The meteor shower is basically dust particles from the well known Halleys comet which was seen back 1986..I'll see if I can find some info on meteor showers in the north eastern hemisphere for folk like yourself Snowzee

Did anyone see the fireball that came streaming through the sky about 11:30 pm last night...it was wow

No.......snifff

Anybody tried to see the Perseid Meteor Shower that is supposed to peak tonight (11 Uagust) and tomorrow night? I went outside with the kids just after 10, but I think we were too early for the angle we can see, as we didn't see a single thing in more than 30 minutes outside. I must say that the ambient light is just incredible - before I could see a lot more stars, but tonight, almost couldn't see the stars! Scorpio right above is just a feint bunch of stars...

I don't think it will be visible in the Southern hemisphere, because it is centered in Perseus. This constellation is not currently visible in our night skies.

I might be wrong though ...

Yes you might be wrong... but you're not

The Perseid meteor shower centers around the 7th brightest star of Perseus (Eta Persei) which will rise above the horizon at around 03:00 and reach its highest point in the sky (a paltry 8 degrees above the horizon) at 05:30. Civil twilight starts at around 06:00 so if you're in a remote location with very little light pollution and an unobstructed view of the horizon you'll have a narrow window of about 30 minutes during which you might be lucky to see some meteors burn up very low over the northern horizon.

If, like me, you're stuck in Jozi you can kiss the Perseid meteor shower goodbye and rather wait for the more spectacular Leonid meteor shower in mid November.

Yesterday morning on RSG they had an astronomy proffie from University of the Free State. He said last night and tonight one can see the shower from 10 onwards, though around 4 in the morning'd be better, as then Orion rises in the east as well and one can look at that, as well as Mars to its left (?), and Venus a bit later. Last night the angle should have been such that they streak across the sky, tonight it should be that the come in more direct. He still said that, if you can't see the horizon, you should be able to see them more overhead a bit later.

He did say that one'd see much better in the northern hemisphere, in the order of 200 per hour, but that here it should probably be one every couple of minutes or so.

I didn't even know about it until I heard that on the radio, and that's the only reason I actually tried to go out and see. Great disappointment.

We'll be missing the Perseïden. Solid cloud here..

I didnt see it last night either DQ and there was only light, patchy cloud.

Stayed up to see ..got chilly nipped into bed to get warmer and.....zzzz

Sleeping bag, flask, beenie, gloves & another blanket do the job...geuss it's going to be a late night for me tonight

@ Bishop3006 - Thanks for heads up , was not aware of it.

I have booked a "best river view" bungalow in Olifants Nov 19 and 20. Do you think this will be a good place to watch the Leonids?

Not too sure how much of the leonids you will be viewing from the 19 - 20th November, from what understand is that on the 17th Nevember the rush of some 500 shooting stars will be visible.
All I can say is enjoy your view over the river and good luck on seeing leonids under the clear skies of the Kruger