Eta Aquariids in Helsinki

The Eta Aquariids meteor shower peaks from Helsinki around May 5-6, with up to 40 meteors per hour under ideal conditions. In 2026 a new moon means dark skies, and from Helsinki the radiant in Aquarius climbs to 14° above the south-east horizon around 05:00. Local best viewing window: 04:10–05:00 EEST on the peak night, about 0.8 hours of twilight after sunset. Scaled to that altitude, the 40/hour headline figure works out to roughly 10 meteors an hour from Helsinki under a genuinely dark sky. At this latitude the sky never gets fully dark that night — the Sun only reaches 13.4° below the horizon — so only the brighter meteors will show. Tonight: unbroken cloud; conditions are as poor as they get.