MAY METEOR SHOWERS: From the Arkansas Sky Observatories

Observe when the moon does not interfere and attempt to observe AFTER midnight for most meteors to be seen!

For May, there are three meteor showers, some of which provide for wonderful spring sky shows, provided that the light of the moon does not interfere.  However, as with all months and times during the year, observers should always be aware that new sporadic meteor showers can occur at anytime from seemingly unknown sources and radiants.  MAY is always an excellent time to go outside and view the heavens and the interloping meteors among them; typically in most locations, whether spring in the northern hemisphere or fall in the southern, the skies are crisp and clear.

Most of May's meteor showers occur early in the month....because the NEW MOON falls on May 5 in May 2008, this is an excellent year to enjoy the meteors that May offers!

May 1 - Phi Bootid Meteors - A really long term meteor shower that actually begins on or about April 16 and persists until May 12, emanating from the constellation of Bootes AND Hercules (the radiant has indeed moved in recent years!), high in the eastern sky at dark, and remain so for most of the night for northern latitudes.  The best time to observe the most of these meteors is always about 2 a.m. local time...this year, the nearly new Moon will not be in the sky at the mid-duration of this long shower, so observing a week before or week after will reveal dark skies and the most meteors.   About 6 meteors can be seen per hour, most medium bright, relative fast and pretty much overhead, all traced back to northwestern Hercules.

May 3 - Alpha Scorpiid Meteors - The peak of this shower takes place during the week of this year's May NEW Moon, so even the faintest members of this meteor shower might be seen, weather permitting for the 2008 display of this minor meteor shower.  The shower is another long duration one, beginning in early April on the Libra-Scorpius border and slowly moving into the constellation of Ophiuchus by May 9!  The motion of this radiant is of much interest to astronomers and your detection of meteors from night to night as to where they appear to originate is very important; the radiant will rise in the far southeastern sky about 9 p.m. local time and be overhead at 1 p.m. the following morning.

May 5-6 - Eta Aquarid Meteors - Normally one of the finest meteor showers of each year, the Eta Aquarid meteors were recorded as early as 401 A.D. by the ancient Chinese stargazers.....now we know them to be part of TWO debris clouds left in the wake of famous HALLEY's COMET through which the earth passes each year.  Meteors can be seen from this shower all the time from April 21 through May 12, but the peak is fairly steep and occurs each year on May 4.....look for brilliant and spectacularly exciting fireballs from May 9 through 11, all of which will be seen dramatically in spite of this year's full moon on this date.  The radiant for this meteor shower is located very near the star asterism known as "The Water Jar" in Aquarius, but moves a bit northeast each day through the long period the meteoric cloud persists around the earth.  Note that this meteor shower for northern latitudes is very low in southern skies...most meteors should be seen coming from the EAST horizon (not overhead like most showers!) about 2 a.m......but by 7 a.m., note that the most frequent meteors appear to originate about halfway from that point to overhead.  On most dates with dark skies such as we will have this year, up to 25 Eta Aquarids might be expected, most bright and leaving glowing "fireball" trails behind them.  This year, the moon will be new and absent from the sky and thus will not hamper observations; this is an excellent year in hopes of seeing many of these fine meteors!

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