Eta Aquariids in Bilbao

The Eta Aquariids meteor shower peaks from Bilbao around May 5-6, with up to 40 meteors per hour under ideal conditions. In 2026 a new moon means dark skies, and from Bilbao the radiant in Aquarius climbs to 20° above the east horizon around 05:45. Local best viewing window: 04:40–05:45 CEST on the peak night, about 1.1 hours of nautical twilight. Scaled to that altitude, the 40/hour headline figure works out to roughly 14 meteors an hour from Bilbao under a genuinely dark sky. At this latitude the sky never gets fully dark that night — the Sun only reaches 30.3° below the horizon — so only the brighter meteors will show. Tonight: thick cloud for much of the window.