Halley's Comet & the eta Aquarids Meteor Shower May 6th

        Halley's Comet is making an appearance in our sky on May 6 in the form of the eta Aquarids meteor shower as icy pieces of its dusty tail pass through our atmosphere.  Halley's Comet has a long, irregular orbit though, and will not be back around Earth until 2061, making this a very special meteor shower.  

Diagram of orbits in our solar system.  Notice that Halley's Comet has
a long, elliptical orbit in the opposite direction than the planets.

        ScienceCast: Meteors from Halley's Comet, from NASA Science, brilliantly and brielfy explains the eta Aquarids and Halley's Comet in under three minutes.  The fast-moving meteors will radiate from the constellation Aquarius at 148,000mph as Earth passes through Halley's dust on the morning of May 6, 2011.  With the near perfect timing of the New Moon on May 3rd, this should be quite a display.  Although the best place to see this shower is in the southern hemisphere and close to the equator where 40 meteors per minute can be seen, we are expected to see about 10 in the United States - with optimal viewing from 3:30am until sunrise. 

Halley's Comet.  Unfortunately, we will not get to see it like this on May 6th.

Source: NASA Science