Sky Briefing #002 — Halley Sends Regards
At 03:51 UTC this morning, Halley’s Comet debris hit peak density in the upper atmosphere. Anyone on a southbound night flight at that hour had the best seat of the week. Below, Alaska was adding a second European city in three weeks, American was opening Budapest without a stopover, and at Tokyo Haneda a humanoid robot had been loading bags since 1 May.
Skies
These are the best Halley’s Comet nights this decade. The Eta Aquariids peaked at 03:51 UTC on 5 May — comet dust entering at 66 km/s, burning up around 100 km above Earth. From the Northern Hemisphere, 10–30 meteors an hour under clear skies; the Southern Hemisphere gets up to 50. A bright moon trims the count in 2026, but the brighter streaks come through anyway. Activity stays elevated through 7 May. On overnight flights heading south or southeast: east-facing window seat, look up toward Aquarius.
Venus, Jupiter and the Moon converge in the evening sky on 18 May. Just after sunset on 18 May, the crescent Moon, Venus, and Jupiter stand close together in Gemini. Venus is the brightest point in the night sky after the Moon; Jupiter sits right alongside. The trio is unmissable through a cabin window. West-facing seat after sunset. On westbound flights that is the left side, on eastbound the right.
StarWalk — Astronomical Events May 2026
Aviation
Alaska Airlines adds Seattle–London Heathrow, three weeks after launching Rome. Daily from 21 May on its 787-9, departing SEA at 21:40, landing LHR at 15:05. Seattle–Rome only launched in late April. Alaska also announced the largest fleet order in its history this week: 105 Boeing 737-10s and five more 787s. Anyone who filed Alaska under “West Coast regional” should pull that note and start over.
Philadelphia–Budapest is the only nonstop between the US and Hungary. American Airlines starts daily seasonal service on 21 May, running until 5 October on a 787-8. Budapest travelers from the US have always needed a layover in Frankfurt, Vienna, or Munich. Not this summer. AA is also launching Philadelphia–Prague the same day.
Haneda cannot find enough baggage handlers, so JAL is using robots. From 1 May, humanoid Unitree robots are running a two-year trial at Tokyo Haneda, handling luggage in partnership with JAL and GMO AI & Robotics. The context: 87 million passengers a year, a shrinking workforce, and ground-handling jobs going unfilled. The answer was not higher wages. That tells you more about Japan’s labor market than about robotics.
CNBC — JAL humanoid robots at Haneda
because you need to know when Halley is passing by as a meteor shower — the comet itself is not due back until 2061.