The shower has been active since 19 April and continues until 28 May, but the best time to view it is in early May.

Halley’s Comet and the Eta Aquarids

The comet’s relative fame is because observations of it helped astronomers understand that comets could make return trips to the night skies.

Halley’s Comet is visible from Earth every 76 years. Source: Getty / Getty Images/Getty Images

Each time Halley returns to the inner solar system, it sprays ice and rock into space, creating a debris stream that results in meteor showers.

The meteor shower occurs “as the earth is moving through that cloud of rocks that is coming from a particular area of the sky, and once we’ve moved through it, the meteor shower will be done for the year”, she said.

Best places to view the Eta Aquarids

Those in the northern hemisphere will have the potential to see about a fifth of the meteors those in the southern hemisphere may get to see.

What stargazers should know

“So make sure there’s not a big suburb or city just north of you that’s going to add extra light to the sky, get away from the city if you can, but it doesn’t have to be a perfectly dark sky,” she said.

The Eta Aquarids meteor shower as seen on 5 May 2024. Source: Anadolu / Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images

Hurley-Walker said that, while the Eta Aquarids happens every year, it was not easy to predict how visibly impressive a meteor shower may be.

“Because it’s just dust and stuff in space, we can’t see it until it hits the atmosphere and that means that some years are great and some years are a little bit of a washout, we really can’t tell until it happens.”

When you’ll be able to see the Eta Aquarids

Chandran suggests the prime time for people in most parts of Australia to view the meteor shower will be between 2am and 5.40am.