Lyrid Meteors

“from spaceweather.com email:

WEEKEND METEORS: Earth is entering the dusty tail of Comet Thatcher, and this will cause a mild meteor shower this weekend. It's called the Lyrid meteor shower because the bits of incandescent comet dust appear to come from the constellation Lyra. The best time to look is during the dark hours before dawn on Sunday, April 22nd, and Monday, April 23rd, when you can expect to see a shooting star overhead every 5 minutes or so.

[Zenithal Hourly Rate (ZHR) = 18 (can be variable - up to 90)]


Spaceweather.com

IMO Calendar 2007

Meteor Activity Outlook for April 20-26”

“Thanks Tilt. I'll be looking.”

“Why is it best to look at it before dawn?”

“woooo hoooo..thanks Tilt....something to entertain Lee's 9 yr old with....( if I can drag her out of bed!!!....LOL..)”

“Thanks Tilt!”

“I saw one last night! I can always count on you highly informed and educated TTers to fill me in on the scoop!”

“
Well....

1) Between midnight and dawn is better because that's when you're on the 'front' side of the planet as it orbits the sun... and as it passes through the trail of particles left by the comet (in this case Thatcher C/1861 G1.... with a period of 415 years!). I think there is one shower believed to be from asteroid dust, but I can't recall which at the moment.

2) The next consideration is when the Moon rises or sets. Moonset should be around 12:20 tonight and 1 AM tomorrow night, local time (daylight savings!).

3) We also need to know when the radiant rises or sets, in this case located in the constellation Lyra (the point in the sky from which the meteors emanate... see IMO calendar link above). It looks like it'll already be up a fair amount when the moon sets, but it'll be better as the morning progresses --- best just before the rosy-fingered dawn comes along to spoil the party.

4) Also -- the peak should occur April 22, 14h45m to April 23, 1h45m GMT according to our friends at the IMO.

That's April 22 10:45 AM to 9:45 PM, Eastern Daylight Time.


So: between midnight and dawn, no moon, radiant at the highest point, closest to (or during) the calculated peak... Ergo: early tomorrow before dawn.

(especially for us Yanks)


Or for the Night Owls ---- sometime after midnight grab a folding lounge chair along with a tasty beverage of your choice and point your toes to the northeast.

(Euro has the better location, peak time -wise, for Sunday night after midnight)....(grrrr)



Now if only Those Freakin' Clouds will stay out of the way....!

”

“Amazing --- This person 'Thatcher' discovered the comet in the early days of the Civil War and it won't be back around for another 269 years.”

“Nice!

I'm always interested in articles discussing evidence or reports of astonomical events in the distant past. The Chinese kept good records.... and preserved them.

There was someone who postulated that a petroglyph (in Austalia?) might have been inspired by a nova.... Paleoastronomy?”

“...uhmm, Tilt, there is one question that has always been bothering me: if I see a full moon, is it, at the same day, full moon on the other side of earth too, or is it new moon there?”

“Full Moon there too! < G >

If you were on a different planet... no.”

“Glad to hear. That takes a load of my mind.”

“Hmm....

Actually, for an observer on another planet (in our solar system) it would get interesting pretty quickly....

(see diagram)

For an observer outside our solar system.... All Bets Are Off! LOL


No simple questions from you! [GRIN]”

“Well, it's good to know that I see the same moon as you do, or somebody from...let's say, Australia. Many things are different in Australia though, for example the vortex in the toilet bowl rotates in the other direction when flushed. So they say...”

“The Moon can do funny things, though, viewed from different places. It'll be in the same phase (Full, New, etc) but look like it's pitched over to one side or the other depending on your latitude...

And that 'swirling water thing' is a whole other can o' worms!”

“When will Uranus be visible?”

“probably about right now on the batcave buttkicker.”

“It's a Po-jama People Special!”

“hey tilt...maybe you know this...

what bright star (or maybe planet?) is directly behind you when you look at polaris/ big dipper at 4am?”

“Let's see.... Right now, Saturn sets in the WNW at about 3:30 am. Looking south is Antares (the red supergiant in Scorpio) and just to the left is Jupiter.


Here's a handy link:

This Week's Sky at a Glance

It lets you know what's going on at any particular time and at the bottom there's a 'round-up' of where all the planets are.”

“

I displayed these larger than I normally would (the chart looked especially crappy when I displayed it smaller!).... I hope it doesn't screw up the page for anyone ---

















(click on image for LARGER version of M56)
last edited: 4/22/07 11:22:50 AM”

“Whuddaya, some kinda space case?”

“Got any lurid meat Eeyores?”

“thanks Tilt!”

“Nothin' to it!       < G >”

“
Got any lurid meat Eeyores?             ”

“Eye, Cap't Flicked!”

“ahhh... I saw a shooting star Friday night and a friend saw two in 5 minutes Saturday night. That was maybe around 11 p.m. or midnight. Campers sitting along the Mississippi River, just north of the IA/MN border, looking to the southwest to northwest.

Does that fit?

Was funny, a gal along said she'd heard you could look at the sky and see a shooting star every 5 minutes. We got a good laugh and said, well, yeah, MAYBE during a meteor shower.

Thanks for verifying. I hadn't known of this meteor shower.”

“
They can appear just about anywhere in the sky, but to be an actual Lyrid meteor, you'd have to be able to trace their path back to the radiant point between Lyra and Hercules.

There are always 'sporadics' zipping by --- not associated with any shower. There are more of them in late Summer and Fall, tho....

Also, if you check out the IMO calendar link at the top, there are usually 2 or 3 other smaller showers going on at the same time, too. There really are named meteor showers that have an hourly rate of TWO....    ISYN!

”

“I just saw a huge meteor about 10 minutes ago.

Sitting on the porch not even thinking about meteors facing northwest with the Sun nearly to rise so very light with no stars still visible the meteor streaked halfway across the sky and broke into several pieces.”

“Lyra and Hercules?”

“Lyra is a radiant point?”

“Possibly two radiant points.....
>8^O”

“Simply Incorrigible.

tsk tsk tsk”

“Lyra has meteors???”

“I thought she was a vegematarian.”

“Some Northboundin' thru-hikers were gettin' it up to Max Patch to see this shower. I was at the shelter at the base of Snowbird Mountain, and didn't see anything cause I wasn't looking at the right time. Phoo!”

“I know that patch o' dirt.

Went up to the top 'cause the trail description said "tower" and it turned out to be a VORTAC!



It looked a lot like this, only with more barbed wired and scary government signs.”