Eta Aquariids in Dublin

The Eta Aquariids meteor shower peaks from Dublin around May 5-6, with up to 40 meteors per hour under ideal conditions. In 2026 a new moon means dark skies, and from Dublin the radiant in Aquarius climbs to 16° above the south-east horizon around 04:55. Local best viewing window: 04:05–04:55 IST on the peak night, about 0.8 hours of civil twilight. Scaled to that altitude, the 40/hour headline figure works out to roughly 11 meteors an hour from Dublin under a genuinely dark sky. At this latitude the sky never gets fully dark that night — the Sun only reaches 20.2° below the horizon — so only the brighter meteors will show. Tonight: mostly clouded over — breaks will be brief.