text: OUT OF THIS WORLD | Earth, Space And The Stuff In Between - a daily journey through weather, space and science with meteorologist/science writer Scott Sutherland 
   
   See the eta Aquarid meteor shower from anywhere. Here's when 
   
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   Meteorologist/Science Writer Scott Sutherland 
   
   Monday, May 2, 2016, 1:57 PM - Famous Halley's Comet is bringing a pre-dawn meteor shower to our skies on Thursday and Friday, and here's how you can watch it from anywhere, no matter what the weather is like. 
   
   Twice every year, Earth's orbit around the Sun carries it through streams of debris in space, left behind by the passing of Comet Halley. When the the tiny flecks of dust and ice that make up these streams plunge into Earth's atmosphere, they are moving fast enough to produce glowing trails through the sky, resulting in meteor showers. 
   
   On the mornings of May 5 and May 6, we will be able to see the first of these two Halley's Comet meteor showers - the Eta Aquarids. 
   
   Watch from anywhere 
   
   The meteor shower's radiant - the point in the sky where the meteors appear to emerge from - rises along with the constellation Aquarius, in the very early morning hours. The meteor shower should be visible from about 3 a.m. local time, until dawn, on both mornings. 
   
   
   
   The eta Aquarid radiant in the eastern sky, at 4 a.m. on May 5 and May 6, 2016. Credit: Stellarium/S. Sutherland 
   
   While it's not considered one of the strongest meteor showers that occur during the year, anyone with clear skies and far away from sources of light pollution should be able to see between 10 and 20 meteors per hour. 
   
   According to NASA, the morning of May 5 may be the better of the two days for viewing, with slightly more meteors visible in the sky, and the exact peak of the meteor shower is expected during daylight hours on May 5. 
   
   Below are maps of the expected cloud conditions for the two mornings (check back for updates to this forecast). 
   
   THE BIG REVEAL: Will a developing La Niña affect our summer as much as El Niño affected our winter? Tune in for the Summer Forecast on May 24 at 9pm EST and we'll help you plan your summer. 
   
   If the weather fails to cooperate with you on these two mornings, or the timing doesn't really work with your sleep schedule, the Slooh Community Observatory is hosting a live show, which can be viewed via the embedded video at the bottom of this article. 
   
   The Slooh show begins at 8 p.m. EDT, on the night of Thursday, May 5. 
   
   Meteor trains! 
   
   One of the remarkable things about the eta Aquarid meteor shower is that they can produce what are known as "persistent trains" - colourful, faintly glowing streaks that can persist in the sky from a few seconds to several minutes after the meteor has winked out. Some have even been observed for hours afterward. 
   
   What causes this is the exceptional speed of the meteoroids in the stream of cometary debris. 
   
   When a typical meteoroid passes through the Earth's upper atmosphere, it's travelling at around 100,000 km/h, and it compresses the air molecules directly in its path to the point where they heat up and glow. This glow persists for as long as the meteoroid exists (the heat vapourizes ice particles and smaller bits of dust) and as long as it's travelling fast enough to continue compressing the air (since the compressed air pushes back against the meteoroid, slowing it down). 
   
   The particles in the eta Aquarid stream hit Earth's atmosphere travelling at more like 240,000 km/h. This produces the bright meteor flash, and sometimes there's an added bonus. 
   
   After the meteor has winked out, a glowing trail can be left in the air. 
   
   Since these have only rarely been recorded, there's still some uncertainty about exactly how this is caused, however there are two basic ideas behind this effect. The first says that the meteoroids are travelling fast enough to actually strip electrons from the air molecules, ionizing them. As the air molecules reclaim those liberated electrons, the energy they release in the process is emitted as light. Since this process can take much longer than the original meteor flash, the "train" persists in the air afterward. The second says that metals vapourized off the fast-moving meteoroids chemically react with ozone and oxygen to produce the glow via chemiluminescence. One of these explanations may account for these "trains" or both may cover different occurrences, at different times, and even between individual meteors. 
   
   It will take more sightings of these to fully explain them. 
   
   Sources: NASA | Slooh | With files from The Weather Network 
   
   Watch Below: The Slooh Community Observatory eta Aquarid show starts at 8 p.m. EDT, Thursday, May 5. ||||| Twice every year Earth collides with a ring of debris left behind by Halley’s comet, creating a pair of sibling meteor showers that can dazzle in the night sky. 
   
   This entire week you can catch the first of the two displays, called the Eta Aquarids. It began on April 19, and will peak on May 5 before ending around May 28. 
   
   The Eta Aquarids is one of the fastest meteor showers. Its specks pierce the sky at about 148,000 miles per hour.
target: – The Eta Aquarids meteor shower happens when Earth passes through the debris left behind by Halley's Comet, and it's peaking this week, the New York Times reports. The Weather Network reports that most everyone will have a good view of the shower Thursday and Friday. About 10 to 20 meteors per hour will be visible between 3am and dawn local time, just to the left of the constellation Aquarius, those mornings. Those wanting the best view may want to avoid clouds and light pollution. Oh, and don't blink. “If you blink, you’re not going to see them. They move that fast,” a NASA astronomer tells the Times. The meteors, which are typically about the size of a grain of sand, are traveling approximately 148,000mph when they hit the atmosphere.