From midnight on Saturday, May 6 until just before sunrise on Sunday, May 7, Earth will witness an astronomical event Sunday as the world approaches the dusty remnants of Halley’s Comet, the source of the annual Etta Dalian meteor shower. , in the skies of the Arab world.
According to the Astronomical Society in Jeddah, 10 to 20 meteors are usually seen per hour and up to 50 under ideal conditions, but this year’s moonlit sky is unlikely to see this number.
The annual meteor shower arises as the world passes by during its orbit around the Sun, when it strikes and burns up at the top of Earth’s atmosphere and appears to us as a streak of light, collectively through the dusty debris scattered in the orbits of comets. By determining the speed and direction of those meteors, a path can be made for that dusty debris through the Solar System and its source, and in the case of the Eta Daloides, the source is Halley’s Comet.
Meteors in the sky
The best time to follow meteors is in the hours before sunrise when the constellation Aquarius is high in the dome of the sky toward the southern horizon.
But there is no need to find that constellation, because meteors can appear from anywhere in the dome of the sky, and all the observer needs is a dark place far from the lights of cities and a clear sky. There is no need to use special devices or star charts only with the naked eye.
Meteorites are Aquarius
It takes about 20 minutes for the human eye to adjust to darkness, and an observer should allow at least an hour to see a meteor.
It is worth noting that these meteors are named “Eta Dalios” because they apparently originate near the faint star “Eta Aquarius”, but since that star is 170 light-years away, there is no connection between the star and the meteors. When meteors burn 70 to 100 kilometers above the Earth’s surface, this equates to trillions of miles.
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