Ten meteors per hour if conditions align—clear skies and genuine darkness.
Each year in early May, Earth passes through the ancient trail left by Halley's Comet, and the sky responds with streaks of light that have been crossing human skies for centuries. This year, the Eta Aquarids peak on the nights of May 6th and 7th, offering up to ten meteors per hour to anyone willing to seek darkness and patience. It is a reminder that even in an age of artificial light, the cosmos continues its quiet, indifferent generosity — scattering the remnants of a comet that most living people will never see whole.
- Fragments of Halley's Comet are tearing through Earth's upper atmosphere at 65 kilometers per second, leaving glowing trails that can linger for minutes.
- The waning gibbous moon rises around 11pm during peak nights, threatening to drown out the fainter meteors and narrow the window for ideal viewing.
- Astronomers and observatories are urging stargazers to wait until after 1am, travel away from city lights, and give their eyes a full thirty minutes to adjust to the dark.
- Clear skies and a genuinely dark location remain the decisive variables — parks, beaches, and reservoirs offer the best odds of an unobstructed view.
- The shower stays active through May 21st, and those who miss it can look ahead to the Orionids in October, the second meteor shower born from the same comet's debris.
On the nights of May 6th and 7th, anyone standing somewhere dark enough to see a real sky might catch ten shooting stars in a single hour. The Eta Aquarids arrive reliably each year, carrying with them something extraordinary: they are pieces of Halley's Comet, the famous visitor that won't return to our skies until 2061. The comet is currently drifting somewhere beyond Neptune, but the debris it has shed over millennia continues to cross Earth's orbit, and when those fragments hit the upper atmosphere at 65 kilometers per second, they burn into brief, luminous trails.
The shower has been active since April 20th and runs through May 21st, but the peak is now. The recommended approach is patient and simple — find darkness, wait thirty minutes for your eyes to adjust, and look up. The Observatory at Science Centre Singapore points to after 1am as the best window, when ambient urban light has softened. The meteors appear to radiate from Eta Aquarii, a star in the Aquarius constellation that rises in the east around 3am, though the streaks themselves can appear anywhere across the sky.
There are complications. The moon will be more than half illuminated during peak nights, rising around 11pm and washing out the fainter meteors. Cloud cover is the other unpredictable obstacle. But when conditions cooperate, the rewards are real — in 2025, a first-time meteor shower watcher in Singapore counted at least eighteen meteors in just over an hour from a park in Hougang, and managed to photograph several of them.
For those who missed April's Lyrids, this is another invitation to step outside and look up. The Orionids, born from the same comet's trail, will come again in October.
If you were outside on the night of May 6th or the early morning hours of May 7th, looking up from somewhere dark enough to see, you might have caught sight of ten shooting stars streaking across the sky in a single hour. That's what the Eta Aquarids meteor shower brings each year—a reliable celestial gift for anyone willing to stay up late and find a patch of darkness.
The meteors themselves are fragments of Halley's Comet, that famous visitor that swings past Earth once every 76 years. Right now, the comet is somewhere beyond Neptune, making its slow journey back toward the inner solar system. It won't be visible from Earth again until 2061, but the debris it leaves behind continues to intersect with our planet's orbit, and when it does, we get a show. These particular pieces of rock and dust hit the upper atmosphere at 65 kilometers per second—fast enough to create glowing trails that can linger for anywhere from a few seconds to several minutes, painting temporary scars across the night sky.
The shower has been active since April 20th and will remain visible through May 21st, but the peak happens right around May 6th and 7th. The Observatory at Science Centre Singapore recommends waiting until after 1 in the morning to look up, when the ambient light from cities and towns has faded enough for your eyes to work properly. The advice from NASA is straightforward: spend about thirty minutes in the dark, let your pupils dilate, and then the meteors will start to appear. The best viewing happens from locations genuinely removed from city lights—parks, beaches, reservoirs, anywhere you can stand and see a real sky.
There's a catch, though. The moon will be in its waning gibbous phase during the peak nights, meaning it will be more than half illuminated. It rises around 11 p.m. to midnight, and all that reflected sunlight will wash out the fainter meteors, making the fainter ones harder or impossible to see. Weather matters too. Cloud cover can ruin an entire night of watching, and there's no way to predict that far in advance. But if conditions align—clear skies, a dark location, and patience—ten meteors per hour is a realistic expectation.
The shower gets its name from its radiant point, the spot in the sky where all the meteors appear to originate. That point is Eta Aquarii, one of the brightest stars in the Aquarius constellation. During the peak, this star rises in the east around 3 a.m., but meteors can appear anywhere in the sky, not just near the radiant point. A reader in Singapore named Ms. May T experienced this firsthand in 2025, when she saw at least eighteen meteors in just over an hour at Tai Keng Gardens in Hougang, between 3:30 and 4:40 in the morning. It was her first meteor shower. She managed to photograph several of them.
Halley's Comet produces two annual meteor showers. The Eta Aquarids come in May. The Orionids, the second shower from the same comet's debris, arrive in October. For anyone who missed the Lyrids in April, the Eta Aquarids offer another chance to step outside and remember that the sky is still full of motion and light, if you know when and where to look.
Notable Quotes
After about 30 minutes in the dark, your eyes will adapt and you will begin to see meteors.— NASA guidance on meteor shower viewing
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why does Halley's Comet create two separate meteor showers if it only passes Earth once every 76 years?
The comet leaves a trail of debris along its entire orbit. As Earth travels around the sun, it crosses that debris stream twice a year at different points—once in May and once in October. We're not waiting for the comet to come back; we're moving through the dust it already left behind.
So if the moon is so bright it washes out the fainter meteors, what's the point of watching during the peak if the moon is in the way?
The peak still gives you the highest density of meteors overall. Even if the moon washes out the faint ones, the bright meteors will still be visible. You're trading quantity for quality in a way—fewer total sightings, but the ones you do see are the most dramatic.
That reader in Singapore saw eighteen meteors in just over an hour. That's nearly double the expected rate. Was she just lucky?
Partly. She was in a dark location away from the city, she was watching at the optimal time—after 3 a.m.—and she had clear skies. Those conditions matter enormously. But yes, there's also natural variation. Some nights are more active than others.
How fast are these things actually moving when they hit the atmosphere?
Sixty-five kilometers per second. That's roughly 234,000 kilometers per hour. At that speed, friction with the air heats them to incandescence almost instantly. The glow you see isn't the meteor itself burning up—it's the air around it being superheated by the collision.
And people can see this with their naked eye? No telescope needed?
None at all. In fact, a telescope would make it harder. You need to see a wide field of sky to catch the meteors as they appear. Your eyes are the right tool for this.