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The Eta Aquariid meteor shower bursts upon the skies this week, reaching its peak on the night of 5–6 May.

Best seen before dawn, the chart shows the view looking east from London at 4am on 6 May. By this time, the shower’s radiant point will have climbed into the south-eastern sky.

The name of the shower is taken from the star closest to the radiant, which sits in the constellation Aquarius, the water bearer.

To view, do not look directly at the radiant– instead look to the sky around it. The meteors will be seen in these surrounding regions, their streaks pointing back to the radiant. They will leave fine, often persistent, trails as these specks of dust burn up in our atmosphere.

Each speck was once part of Halley’s comet. They have been shed as part of the comet’s tail over thousands of years and are now spread along its orbit. Each May, Earth ploughs through this stream, and the tiny grains strike our atmosphere at a speed of around 65km per second.

The best views of this shower are always from the southern hemisphere, where the radiant is higher in the sky. However this year, a bright, waning gibbous moon will obscure the fainter meteors for all observers.

Nevertheless, observers might expect to see a dozen or so bright meteors an hour.