How To Watch The Eta Aquariids Meteor Shower In New Zealand This Week
Article – RNZ
What is the Eta Aquariids and how can you get a glimpse? RNZ Online
Got a great photo of the meteor shower? Email us at iwitness@radionz.co.nz
One of the best meteor showers in the Southern Hemisphere, the Eta Aquariids, will be visible in New Zealand this week.
Here's how you can catch a glimpse of it and what you need to know.
Firstly, what is the Eta Aquariids?
The Eta Aquariids is a meteor shower caused by the Earth passing through a trail of debris orbiting the Sun that's left behind by Halley's Comet.
'Small bits of ice, dust, and rock fall into our atmosphere and high speeds, burning up and creating the meteors, commonly known as shooting stars,' says Stardome Observatory and Planetarium's Josh Aoraki.
The annual meteor shower takes place in early May each year.
Aoraki says it's one of the best and most reliable meteor showers for us in the Southern Hemisphere 'so it's a great time to see a celestial light show'.
How can I watch it?
While you should be able to catch a glimpse of the celestial light show throughout the week, Thursday will likely be the best day – but prepare for an early morning, peak viewing time is after the Moon has set, between 3am and 6am.
'All you need is a clear sky and an unobstructed view of the north-eastern sky looking toward the constellation Aquarius,' Aoraki says.
You won't need a telescope, just look for Venus shining brightly.
MetService is forecasting chilly nights and mornings this week so you'll want to wrap up warm if you're heading outside.
Where's the best place to see it?
While it'll be visible to anyone in New Zealand, anyone living in a city should head out to somewhere with clear, dark skies for the best viewing experience.
Under dark skies you could see between 10 and 50 meteors per hour but patience will be key.
Will I be able to get a photo on my phone?
Unfortunately this is probably not one of those experiences you'll be able to capture on your phone, unless you're able to take a decent long exposure photo, Aoraki says.
'You will need a professional camera or DSLR camera to capture this. Smartphones are not good in low light and most do not have great long-exposure settings.
'Any camera that has a long exposure setting of around 30 seconds should be able to capture a few meteors streaking across the sky if you set up a timelapse.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Otago Daily Times
21 hours ago
- Otago Daily Times
Stalwart stargazers' service honoured
A Lake Tekapo couple are among the seven people across South Canterbury named in this year's King's Birthday honours. Stargazers Alan Gilmore and Pamela Kilmartin have both been made Members of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM). The couple have both received honours for services to astronomy. Mr Gilmore and Ms Kilmartin were recognised for their contributions to furthering astronomy in New Zealand since the 1970s, particularly through research on hazardous near Earth objects. Ms Kilmartin said while they were both delighted to be honoured, they had a feeling there were others were more deserving in the district including volunteers and first responders. "We were doing work that we love doing, and it was its own reward really," Mr Gilmore said. The couple had been living at Lake Tekapo for 45 years. Ms Kilmartin grew up in Mananui, near Taumarunui, where the night sky was bright with stars. She later moved to Auckland where she joined the Auckland Astronomical Society and took courses organised by the society. Mr Gilmore was born in Greymouth. His father worked on the railways, and he was transferred to Otoko, north of Gisborne. "I think that was probably where I got a first inkling of an interest in stars, because we were walking home from visiting neighbours one night, and I saw a star fall. And my dad was very well read, and he explained that this was a rock falling from space," Mr Gilmore said. Their paths collided in Christchurch, where the two struck up a conversation. "We first met at an astronomical conference, which was very appropriate," Ms Kilmartin said. While she had been living in Auckland at the time, finishing a master's degree, he was in Wellington working at the Carter Observatory. After graduating — and studying further — Ms Kilmartin applied for a job at the same observatory. Mr Gilmore said the board was "a little bit diffident about it". "Pam was obviously the best qualified person, but they knew that we were sort of going round together, and they were not quite sure about it. Anyway, they took a gamble on it." When he had started at the observatory years earlier, his employers had been wanting him to find a scientific programme for a telescope purchased in the 1960s. "So after some experimentation, I built a gadget that allowed us to move the photographic plates, it was all photographic stuff in those days, in the telescope, so that it kind of tracked the movement of a comet or an asteroid against the background stars. "The two of us developed skills in both taking pictures of comets and asteroids and doing the measuring and doing all the tedious sums." They got very good at it, he said. "And then by an extraordinary stroke of luck, we heard about a measuring machine for this work that was going begging at Yale Observatory in the [United] States. "We were sort of invited to ask for it, which we did, and they very kindly sent it out to us. That transformed our work." The couple become observer technicians at Mt John Observatory for the University of Canterbury in 1980. They undertook a voluntary research programme on astronomy during their employment and have co-discovered 41 asteroids and a comet. Retiring in 2014 they have continued their voluntary research in retirement, making observations and sending data to the Minor Planet Center funded by NASA, helping observe asteroids to improve the safety of space missions and planetary defence.
Scoop
3 days ago
- Scoop
Judith Collins Tells Security Summit NZ Setting Up Space Squadron
Article – RNZ Judith Collin told those at the inter-governmental conference the Air Force's 62 Squadron would be reactivated. Phil Pennington, Reporter The Defence Minister has told a security summit New Zealand is setting up a space squadron against a backdrop of rising threats. Judith Collins told the high level Shangri-La inter-governmental conference in Singapore the Air Force's 62 Squadron would be reactivated. She also told the summit that as New Zealand doubled its defence spending, 'We need to ensure that we are building capabilities that are effective into the future and this is particularly true for the domains of space, cyber and undersea warfare.' In World War Two 62 Squadron ran radar operations in the Pacific in Bougainville and the Solomon Islands, including in the Guadacanal campaign. 'The 21st century 62 Squadron will again turn to the skies, it's just going to be a little bit higher this time,' Collins said, appearing on a panel talking about cyber, undersea and space challenges. Reuters previously reported the squadron would be reactivated in July with 15 personnel in what was a symbolic step to formalise the significance of the space work the Air Force was already doing. Collins told the summit New Zealand was also working with its partners to 'leverage out launch capabilities and our other unique advantages such as a lack of immediate neighbours, to support our shared security interests'. The United States recently confirmed it was in talks with several partner countries, including New Zealand, about the potential for more military satellite launches in future – though Collins had said she was not 'directly' engaged with that, and the NZ Defence Force said launch contracts were a matter for the US and private company Rocket Lab that has spaceports at Mahia and in the US. 'No nation can work on space alone,' Collins told the summit, while pointing out 'we beat Russia' for the number of rocket launches last year. Transparency around space, cyber and undersea developments was key to avoid misunderstandings, she said. China's senior colonel Shen Zhixiong said the militarisation of space and other emerging technology domains had accelerated, undermining collective security, asking the panel how the international community should resolve that. Collins herself had noted New Zealand's reliance as a small state on a rules-based order. Also, she noted satellites were increasingly crucial and 'increasingly attractive targets for hostile action' despite the big downsides of using weapons in space. She singled out Russia, and claims from US lawmakers that Moscow was developing a nuclear weapon for use in space, for special mention. The $12 billion defence capability plan that covered till 2029, and aimed by 2032 to double New Zealand defence spending, would make the NZDF 'increasingly lethal', she told the summit. The plan featured investment in space systems (up to $600m by 2029), cyber (up to $300m) and 'for the very first time' in maritime surface and subsea drones (up to $100m) to surveil what was happening in New Zealand's vast ocean surrounds, she said. However, Budget 2025 provided only $30m for space shared with a range of other 'small-scale' projects; it had no funding for maritime drones, only for aerial counter-drone systems. There was an undisclosed amount for 'an initial uplift to the defensive cyber capabilities' from 2025-29, Budget 2025 said. A lot of money is still having to be poured into conventional kit – replacing both the Navy's maritime helicopters, and the old, breakdown-prone two 757 planes operated by the Air Force.
Otago Daily Times
4 days ago
- Otago Daily Times
Concern unis will be weakened by focus on science
By John Gerritsen of RNZ Next year's funding boost for science courses and other associated subjects won't drive up enrolments in those fields, universities warn. They also calculate that the government's decision to increase funding for STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects, but not for most other fields in 2026 is a net zero. That's because this year's Budget allowed an emergency two-year 4% funding boost to lapse. Craig Marshall, an associate professor at the University of Otago's School of Biomedical Sciences and a member of the Tertiary Education Union's council, told RNZ without a serious funding increase, universities would increasingly struggle to offer the research-informed teaching that defined them. The ongoing decline in funding compared to inflation could prove fatal, he believed. "I think it'll be incremental. You'll just see small losses here and there and everywhere else and at the end of it all it's very difficult to predict what that leads to, but perhaps the loss of a university." Marshall said the latest decisions meant universities would struggle to offer some humanities courses and students would start to vote with their feet. "What we're starting to see is students instead of coming to universities in New Zealand from school, they'll go to universities overseas. They see that as a better outcome. "Increasingly, students opt now for postgrad graduate training outside of New Zealand, rather than in New Zealand. Some of the universities will be weakened, some may be fatally weakened." Marshall agreed the government was unlikely to let a university to go under, but one or more could lose the ability to provide the research-informed teaching that fostered critical thought - in which case it would cease to be a university in all but name. Universities New Zealand chief executive Chris Whelan said the long-term trend for university funding was poor, but none of the eight institutions was close to failing. "It's becoming challenging to basically retain our position internationally. "We shouldn't care about things like international rankings, but the reality is they do send quite important signals to academic staff, to people that want to do research collaborations with New Zealand researchers and to international students," he said, referring to league tables in which New Zealand universities had been falling. "There is a tipping point where if funding got so low we were not able to maintain that quality, we would have a problem. But I don't think we're anywhere near that." However, Whelan said the net effect of last month's Budget was no increase to total university funding next year. That was about as good as the sector could have expected under the circumstances. But he said the government's decision to favour STEM subjects over humanities was mistaken. "It's an unfortunate message. There seems to be a belief that somehow universities, if they're given more funding for science, technology, engineering, maths-type subjects, can persuade students to drop doing the liberal arts or social sciences and shift across. "The reality is that's just not the case," he said. All fields of university study contributed to the skilled workforce the government said it wanted, he said. Universities minister Shane Reti told RNZ that was correct, but STEM subjects were more closely linked to productivity. "The message we're sending is that we're particularly investing and funding those courses that clearly have a pathway to productivity and economic gain and these are generally the science and the STEM subjects." Enrolments in those subjects had been increasing and the funding decision should encourage universities to increase the breadth and depth of their STEM programmes, Reti said, and universities were not sliding toward failure. "Across the sector, there are some who are doing well and some who are struggling and indeed have been struggling for some period of time and and are receiving extra attention support and monitoring from TEC (the Tertiary Education Commission). "But if we look at the big picture, there's a significant increase in student numbers this year... It's quite a change in trend from over the previous few years where student numbers have been falling away." The government had allocated $111m over the next two years to cover growing university enrolments, he said. He confirmed that the government had allocated enough funding to cover 99% of expected enrolments next year and the commission would be expected to cover the remainder from its reserves. Changing shares of the enrolment pie Ministry of Education Ministry show that sciences have lost ground against other subjects in terms of enrolments in Bachelors degrees in the past 10 years. Considered by predominant field of study, the percentage of students enrolled in the "natural and physical sciences" dropped from 14 to 13% between 2024 and 2015. Health enrolments rose from 17 to 20 percent while education, management and commerce, and the creative arts all dropped slightly. Predominant field of study for 120,995 domestic students enrolled in Bachelors degree programmes in 2024 and 127,705 in 2015. Subject in 2015 / in 2024 Sciences 14% / 13% IT 6% / 7% Engineering 3% / 3% Arch and building 2% / 3% Ag, environment 2% / 2% Health 17% / 20% Education 8%/ 7% Management, commerce 20% /18% Society and culture 33% / 33% Creative arts 11% / 10%
