Eta Aquariids in London

The Eta Aquariids meteor shower peaks from London around May 5-6, with up to 40 meteors per hour under ideal conditions. In 2026 a new moon means dark skies, and from London the radiant in Aquarius climbs to 18° above the south-east horizon around 04:40. Local best viewing window: 03:35–04:40 BST on the peak night, about 1.1 hours of civil twilight. Scaled to that altitude, the 40/hour headline figure works out to roughly 12 meteors an hour from London under a genuinely dark sky. At this latitude the sky never gets fully dark that night — the Sun only reaches 22.0° below the horizon — so only the brighter meteors will show. Tonight: complete cloud cover across the forecast window.