Eta Aquariids in Paris

The Eta Aquariids meteor shower peaks from Paris around May 5-6, with up to 40 meteors per hour under ideal conditions. In 2026 a new moon means dark skies, and from Paris the radiant in Aquarius climbs to 21° above the south-east horizon around 05:45. Local best viewing window: 05:05–05:45 CEST on the peak night, about 0.7 hours of civil twilight. Scaled to that altitude, the 40/hour headline figure works out to roughly 14 meteors an hour from Paris under a genuinely dark sky. At this latitude the sky never gets fully dark that night — the Sun only reaches 24.7° below the horizon — so only the brighter meteors will show. Tonight: mostly clouded over — breaks will be brief.