The maximum of the swarm thus occurs at the time when the radiant, i.e. the place from which the meteors seem to fly out, is high above the horizon, while the observation of the phenomenon is not disturbed by the Moon at all.
During the peak, 10-15 meteors per hour can be seen in dark skies away from major cities and light pollution.
“Although the Lyrids are not as abundant as the August Perseids, they sometimes surprise with up to a hundred meteors per hour,” noted experts from Brno observatories and planetariums with such “showers” having been recorded in 1803 (Virginia), 1922 (Greece), 1945 (Japan) and 1982 (USA).
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“The swarm is worth watching from two o’clock in the morning until dawn, far from cities, ideally in the mountains or in elevated places with a perfect view, as meteors fly out in the direction of the Lyra constellation practically anywhere in the sky,” advises astronomy popularizer Petr Horálek from Institute of Physics University of Silesia in Opava.
According to astronomers, it is practically useless to watch the swarm from the cities – the radiation of light smog will outshine most meteors, and a person will only see one or two during the whole night.
The name of the swarm comes from the constellation Lyra, from which meteors seem to fly out during most of the time of activity of the swarm. In the case of the Lyrids, that spot—the radiant—lies about eight degrees west of one of the sky’s brightest stars: Vega of the constellation Lyra.
The Lyrids are in the Earth’s atmosphere caused by the disappearance of ice dust particles released in past centuries from the nucleus of comet C/1861 G1 (Thatcher). The stream of these tiny dust particles from Comet Thatcher will pass our planet between April 14 and 30.
Longest recorded swarm
The first reports of the Lyrids swarm date back to 1863, when astronomers associated it with Comet Thatcher. It was the return of the comet in 1861 and the subsequent extraordinary increase in swarm activity two years later that forced astronomers to look for further observations of this swarm in the past.
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It turned out that a significant appearance of the Lyrid took place already in 1803, the earliest historical observation even dates back to March 23, 687 BC in China. According to Horálek, this is the longest ever recorded swarm in human history.
“The comet itself returns to the Sun once in approximately 415 years, and the next generation will not see it return again until 2283,” added Horálek.
| A meteor shower is a phenomenon in which a stream of interplanetary dust particles (technically meteoroids) crosses the Earth’s path, and these particles then rub against air molecules as they fly through the Earth’s atmosphere, gradually evaporate and create a glowing trail behind them. Flashes are created, which are professionally called meteors, popularly called “shooting stars” or “flying stars”. |
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