Meteor shower forecast on the morning of King Charles' Coronation

Shooting stars mark the big day: Meteor shower forecast to light up the sky on the morning of King Charles’ Coronation

• The Eta Aquariid meteor shower was forecast to peak from midnight until dawn
• It is caused by Planet Earth passing through dust left by Halley’s Comet

While the weather might not be on side, at least the stars have put on a show for the Coronation. 

In what some may herald as a good omen, a meteor shower lit up the skies early this morning ahead of King Charles’s big day. 

The Eta Aquariid meteor shower was forecast to peak – with up to 50 meteors per hour – from midnight until dawn. 

It will continue until May 28. It is caused by the Earth passing through dust left over from Halley’s Comet, which is visible from Earth only every 76 years. 

Fittingly, Halley’s Comet is depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry, which tells the story of the Norman Conquest by William the Conqueror – Charles’s ancestor who was crowned in 1066.

The Eta Aquariid meteor shower was forecast to peak – with up to 50 meteors per hour – from midnight until dawn. Pictured: Eta Aquariid meteor shower over Brimham Rocks, North Yorkshire

Meteors are pieces of debris, sometimes as small as a grain of sand, that enter Earth’s atmosphere at speeds of up to 70 kilometres per second, vaporising and causing the streaks of light that delight skygazers.

The meteor show favoured the Southern Hemisphere and appeared low in the sky for northerly latitudes, such as the UK, in the early predawn hours.

According to the Greeks and Romans, the arrival of comets, meteors and meteor showers were signs that something good or bad had happened or was about to happen.

In Ancient Greece, an astronomer named Ptolemy claimed that shooting stars would occur when the gods opened up the sky to watch the humans below.

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