Meteor shower to join night sky party as astronomers predict rare Sunday morning spectacle

Stargazers with a clear view to the east will be in luck early on Sunday morning as two spectacular night sky events combine.

A "fluky" coincidence means an annual meteor shower is due to light up almost the exact spot where four planets are aligning close together.

Director of Napier's Holt Planetarium Gary Sparks said it was rare and spectacular enough to have Saturn, Mars, Venus and Jupiter beside each other like "mismatched headlights in the night sky".

From about 2am on Sunday, Eta Aquarid will join the party.

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Sparks said the meteor shower is caused by earth's passing through the trail of dust and ice left by Haley's Comet and is named as such because it appears every year in the constellation of Aquarius.

To have both in the same spot at the same time could be quite a sight, Sparks said.

"Eta Aquarid normally favours the northern hemisphere so the fact it will be in that exact part of the sky is just luck of the draw for us.

"It is a pretty rare thing and I would think definitely worth getting up for."

The best time to view it will be from 3am to 6am, with Jupiter and Venus set to rise about 5am.

Casual viewers could consider themselves happy if they see six meteors in half an hour, Sparks said.

It was possible stargazers would see one every few minutes, but space was not homogenous and, while some parts of the trail of Haley's were thick and dense and brought more meteors, other parts of it were thinner, he said.

"The key is to get a good view of the eastern horizon because that's the direction we are going through as we go through space.

"With meteor showers it's a bit like bugs on a windscreen. And if you want to see bugs flat on your windscreen, you look at the front window, not at the back window."

Moonlight will not dampen the display because it will not appear in the sky on Sunday, but clouds could for some.

MetService meteorologist Peter Little said a front moving up the South Island would mean the West Coast would be under a blanket of rain on Sunday morning, while much of the eastern and southern areas of Te Waipounamu could expect cloud.

The North Island was looking better as it would remain under the grips of a high that had delivered settled May weather so far this week.

Some parts of eastern Northland might find themselves under a stray shower cloud, and there could be a cloud or two in the southwest of Te Ika-a-Māui, Little said.

"Generally speaking, places in the north and east of the North Island look like they should have best views, and of course central parts of the North Island too."