File pic Photo: 123rf
Keen star gazers should look up at the night sky especially between 8pm and 11pm today if they want to see a comet's rare meteor shower.
Comet 46-P Wirtanen, which orbits Earth every five and a half years, will be visible on Tuesday between 8pm and 12.30am.
Auckland University physics professor and cosmology expert Richard Easther told Morning Report it was special because it will be a first viewing of this comet.
"The special thing about this one is that the meteor's dust that has been ejected from a comet and the comet's orbit moves, relative to ours when it has interactions with planets, in this case particularly Jupiter on a regular basis.
"And it just so happens that this particular time is going to be the first time that the Earth has definitely crossed the trail of this comet and so we haven't previously seen a meteor shower from this comet but this maybe our chance," Easther said.
He said Aotearoa is thought to be the best place in the world to see it, provided the cloud cover forecast for some regions does not obscure much of the country's view.
He said for keen star gazers wanting to view it to look up at Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, which is in a north west direction.
He advised those who were interested to go to a dark place away from streetlights for the best viewing.
