Eta Aquarid meteors over New Zealand this week, photographed by Stephen Voss over the course of 90 minutes.
Every spring, Earth crosses the orbital trail of Halley’s Comet. While we’ll have to wait until 2061 to see the actual comet again (I am old enough to remember seeing it back in 1986, though, so nah!), each year we get a fresh sprinkling of comet tail dust into our atmosphere at 150,000 mph. As Earth whips through, the debris appears to radiate out from the constellation Aquarius, which is evident in the photo above.
It’s a coincidence, but a beautiful one. Read more about the Eta Aquarids at EarthSky and Bad Astronomy.
Sadly I live in Auckland and it is currently… being Auckland- rain rain and more rain.
Stunning images.
And yes, I saw Halley’s comet back in 86 as well 🙂