Astrophotography - Eta Aquariids + Milky Way

Updated: Jul 7, 2019

May 2019 featured the meteor shower known as the Eta Aquariids over several days in early May.

Milky Way plus meteor (16mm, f/2.8, 15 sec, ISO 1600)

From Wikipedia

The Eta Aquariids are a meteor shower associated with Halley's Comet.

The shower is visible from about April 19 to about May 28 each year with peak activity on or around May 5. Unlike most major annual meteor showers, there is no sharp peak for this shower, but rather a broad maximum with good rates that last approximately one week centered on May 5. The meteors we currently see as members of the Eta Aquariid shower separated from Halley's Comet hundreds of years ago. The current orbit of Halley's Comet does not pass close enough to the Earth to be a source of meteoric activity.

Although this shower is not as spectacular as the Leonids may be and well below the rates of the Perseids or the Geminids, it is not an ordinary event. The Eta Aquariids get their name because their radiant appears to lie in the constellation Aquarius, near one of the constellation's brightest stars, Eta Aquarii. The shower peaks at about a rate of around a meteor per minute, although such rates are rarely seen from northern latitudes due to the low altitude of the radiant.