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The Universe from your own back yard - April’s Lyrid Meteor Shower

The annual April Lyrid meteor shower runs from the 16th through 25th this year, with a peak on the morning of the 22nd.

The annual April Lyrid meteor shower runs from the 16th through 25th this year, with a peak on the morning of the 22nd.  I’m mentioning it a little early because the peak date coincides with a Full Moon, so you have a better chance seeing a Lyrid a few days before and a few days after the peak, when the Moon is not washing out the sky as much.  

Normal rates for Lyrids are 10-20 meteors an hour on a dark, moonless night; not exciting numbers at the best of times, and this is certainly not one of those times.  When the Moon’s up, sightings are down.

However, there are three reasons one doesn’t just write off this shower for the year: first, they’re fast and bright, entering the atmosphere at 177,000km  (100,000 miles) per hour.  Secondly, about a quarter of them exhibit ‘persistent trains’,  ionized gas trails that glow for a few seconds before fading out.  The third reason is that there’s a chance, albeit a small one, that the Earth runs into a particularly thick section of the meteor stream, and we have a meteor storm; Lyrids have been known to briefly ramp up their numbers to a hundred or more an hour.  

  Fortunately, you don’t need any special equipment to watch a meteor shower; but you do have to spend a little time.  Find a dark, open sky away from artificial lights, sit or lie back in a reclining chair, look upward and let your eyes adjust to the dark.   Direction is not important, but Lyrids will appear to originate from near the bright star Vega in the constellation Lyra, which rises in the northeast a little after 8pm CST on April evenings.  

Historically, the Lyrid meteor shower is among the oldest of known meteor showers, with records going back some 2700 years.  The Chinese recorded one of the outbursts in 687 BC when they wrote recorded meteors “falling like rain”.  The source of the debris the meteors come from is the long period comet C/1861 G1Thatcher, who’s orbit around the Sun takes 415 years to complete (here last in 1861, next in 2276).  Once a year, the Earth plows through the dust it left behind and burns away a portion of it.   

Conditions are far from ideal for this shower, but while you’re waiting, bright Mercury is making a nice appearance just above the western horizon each clear night through next week, and on the 17th, the Moon passes less than three degrees below Jupiter.

And, of course, there’s the Moon itself in the constant parade of objects passing daily above your back yard.  All the universe asks for in return is a little of your time.