Community Corner

Weekend Stargazing: Where to See the Lyrid Meteor Shower

The first major meteor shower since January began Wednesday and will last until this coming Friday.

The Lyrid showers have been thrilling stargazers for some 2,600 years with the magnificent display usually peaking on April 22.

According to AccuWeather, meteorologists are monitoring sky cover this week for the viewing possibilities of the Lyrids, the first major meteor shower since early January.

The shower should be visible from April 16 - 26, peaking during the predawn hours of Sunday, April 21, and Monday, April 22. While the Lyrids average 10 to 20 meteors an hour, AccuWeather's Mark Paquette said in a press release that there is potential for significantly more. 

"It is unpredictable," Paquette said. "Sometimes lyrids have 'surges' which can break up the rate to near 100 per hour."

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Paquette said that the Lyrids, named for their location in the constellation Lyra, are the debris of Comet Thatcher tail when Earth's path crosses through it. The meteors are bits of the tail's comet. As they travel through our atmosphere, they disintegrate as streaks of light, possibly casting a shadow before leaving behind smoke-like trail of debris.

"Lyrid meteors are typically as bright as the stars in the Big Dipper, which is to say, middling brightness, but some are more intense, even brighter than Venus," Paquette said.

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The "Lyrid fireballs" originate in the sky near the star Vega, Lyra's brightest star. Predawn hours offer the best view of the meteors as Vega sits nearly overhead. In the evenings the shower sits closer to the horizon, blocking many of them from view. The waxing moon will also light up the sky until after midnight, dimming the sight of the meteors.

However, the moon sets before dawn, so its brightness will not hinder the view of the shower when it moves into its peak positional hours.

 Most of the country will have clear to partly cloudy skies during the predawn hours on Saturday. A section of the Plains into the upper Northwest, as well as most of the East Coast, will have cloudy skies that will make any sightings difficult. 

This is from a press release from Accu Weather.


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