Posted on 04/20/2007 7:51:26 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
The sky will be dark and moonless for at least three hours before the first light of dawn on Sunday morning, April 22, when the annual Lyrid meteor shower is due to reach its peak.
The shower remains above one-half of its peak strength for about a day or two, centered on the shower’s maximum.
The meteors are called “Lyrids” because their paths, if extended backward, appear to diverge from a spot in the sky not too far to the southwest of the brilliant bluish-white star Vega, in the constellation of Lyra the Lyre. Within a day on either side of the maximum, about 5 to 10 Lyrids can usually be seen each hour by a single observer under good skies. At the peak, the Lyrid rate is roughly 10 to 20 per hour.
Vega appears to rise from the northeast around 9 p.m. local daylight time, but by 4 a.m. it has climbed to a point in the sky nearly overhead. You might want to lie down on a long lounge chair where you can get a good view of the sky. Bundle up too, for while it won’t be a cold as on a winter’s night, nights in April can still be quite chilly. Otherwise, meteor watching is a pretty simple endeavor, requiring no special equipment.
While hardly a rich display, like the famous August Perseids or December Geminids, the April Lyrids are brilliant and appear to move fairly fast, appearing to streak through our atmosphere at 30 miles (48 km) per second. About 20 to 25 percent leave persistent trains. Their orbit strongly resembles that of Comet Thatcher, which appeared in 1861 and has an orbital period of about 400-years. Thus, the Lyrids are this comet’s legacy: They represent the tiny bits and pieces shed by this comet on previous visits to the Sun.
The Earth’s orbit nearly coincides with Comet Thatcher around April 22nd each year. When we pass that part of our orbit, we ram through the dusty debris left behind by the comet.
There are a number of historic records of meteor displays believed to be Lyrids, most notably in 687 B.C. and 15 B.C. in China and A.D. 1136 in Korea when “many stars flew from the northeast.” On April 20, 1803, many townspeople in Richmond, Virginia, were roused from their beds by a fire alarm and were able to observe a very rich display between 1 and 3 a.m. The meteors “seemed to fall from every point in the heavens, in such numbers as to resemble a shower of skyrockets.”
In 1922, an unexpected Lyrid rate of 96 was recorded, and in 1982 rates unexpectedly reached 80 per hour, so although usually a weak display, the Lyrids have had a history to surprise observers so it’s always one to watch.
Bundle up too,
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OKkkk Fine.
4 a.m. ?
can I just order the DVD instead 8-?
just close your eyes and rub them real hard and you wil see pretty lights and stuff
It was wonderful.
I’ll take a good aurora borealis any night. (unless the streaking ‘pebbles’ in the sky are really lighting it up) ;-)
I’ve never been that far north to see the northern lights. I’d like to though.
You know, I wish they would talk to whomever schedules these meteor showers. They ALWAYS seem to happen at really inconvenient times, like 4:00am to sunrise, or 1:00am, or something like that.
Just ONCE, I’d like to see them schedule one of these things for early evening, so that we could all sit down, enjoy a nice leisurely dinner, have a few drinks, and then trundle on out to the backyard for a half hour or so, and enjoy a nice show before we become too tired, and want to get to bed. This 4:00am stuff is really very inconsiderate of them. If it were only once or twice that would be fine, but NO, just about every meteor shower is scheduled for that time. Not very sporting of them, I say. Whatever happened to “diversity”?? Let us practice it in our meteor shower scheduling.
Alright! Sparklers for wife’s birthday. ;)
It’s even supposed to be clear and (relatively) warm. OK, so what’s the glitch? No meteors this year?
Now if I can only stay awake. Been going to be relatively early this week.
I worked myself to the bone today gardening and cleaning the vehicles. I can hardly move. OTOH, a nice meteor shower would be worth going to bed early for and getting up in the middle of the night. I can take a nap Sun....
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