The Lyrids Are Coming!

SeaDour writes "The year's first meteor shower, the Lyrids, will peak in the pre-dawn hours of April 22nd when the Earth plows through the debris trail of Comet Thatcher at a relative velocity of 49 km/s (110,000 mph). Lyrids usually aren't as numerous as other showers (such as the famed Leonids), but they're well-known for their spectacular tails; you can expect to see about 5-20 meteors per hour, depending on the severity of your local light pollution. Unfortunately, my current location in the midwest under stormy skies puts me at a bit of a disposition, but hopefully some other Slashdotters can share their observations with us tomorrow."

Comments

Well, if you host a dinner party to watch them...

[SnappingTurtle]

... just be sure there isn't a dead seal nearby. And that you have permission to use the house you're in.

Sooner warning would have been nice

[Anonymous Coward]

Err... do you think this article could have been posted, say, yesterday?

Re:Sooner warning would have been nice

[AndroidCat]

Yeah, it's far too late to order a few million nano-Bruce Willis clones to save the Earth from all those grain-of-sand impacts. We're doomed!

Re:Sooner warning would have been nice

[Anonymous Coward]

You are (allegedly) having some lady friend(s ha!) over, and are going to get up to watch the METEOR SHOWER, and you're calling me a big fat geek?

Well...well....my Level 478 wizard with +42 dexterity could cast a really nasty spell on you, and I have more comic books than you! Oh, and my Star Wars figures are in mint condition (unlike yours), as are my Transformers, and I installed Linux on my toaster. Stick that in your pipe, GEEK BOY.

A bit of a disposition?

[Anonymous Coward]

Unfortunately, my current location in the midwest under stormy skies puts me at a bit of a disposition,

Wow, that's really condition. I feel really emotion for you, salutation. Perhaps the condition will become adjective, and you'll be affected.

Re:A bit of a disposition?

[spectral]

actually, it's rather commonly understood that when someone says someone else is in 'a mood', that said mood is certainly not a good one. So even THAT sentence is fine, or at least understood by most.

Sheer beauty

[DebianRcksLindowsLie]

This show is worth a watch! It's not as high-profile as the August show, but MAN it's spectacular!

Re:Sheer beauty

[DarwinDan]

Don't you mean...

man spectacular

Just a bit of "open-source" humor :)

Thatcher

[Anonymous Coward]

The year's first meteor shower, the Lyrids, will peak in the pre-dawn hours of April 22nd when the Earth plows through the debris trail of Comet Thatcher...

I've been waiting years to see this... Thatcher falling from the sky in a ball of flames!

What about the 'rest of world' category?

[caitsith01]

Will these be visible from, say, Australia, where I live?

Not that I wish to invite flaming, but 'before dawn' is a highly relative concept for a site like ./ which has readers all over the world. I wish posts like this would give info about other time zones/longitutes/latitudes or at least acknowledge that they are referring to US times and locations.

Re:What about the 'rest of world' category?

[Cali Thalen]

"The Lyrids are best seen between about 2 a.m. and daybreak local time, regardless of where you live, astronomers say"

Missed the 3rd paragraph I take it?

Re:What about the 'rest of world' category?

[Sage Gaspar]

Hehe, I usually try to stay away... but RTFA!

The Lyrids are best seen between about 2 a.m. and daybreak local time, regardless of where you live, astronomers say.

City and suburban dwellers will see significantly fewer of the meteors than those in rural areas away from all light pollution. The shower is not visible from the Southern Hemisphere.

Re:What about the 'rest of world' category?

[Xybot]

Southern hemisphere won't see anything, apart from the usual bunyips, wobbegongs and taniwhas

Re:What about the 'rest of world' category?

[uberdave]

It will take a couple of days for the Earth to pass through the comet trail, thus every longitude will have the opportunity of viewing the show. I can't speak for latitude. If the comet was coming from above the earth's orbital plane as it headed sunward, southern latitudes would be out of luck for most of the show. Gravity might bend a few your way though.

Re:What about the 'rest of world' category?

[sould]

Hehe, I usually try to stay away... but RTFA!

Except the FAIW

The shower is not visible from the Southern Hemisphere

From the

The Lyrids are a northern shower, but can be observed by most mainland Australians. The best time to observe the Lyrids is in the morning between 2.00-5.00 am. However, the Lyrids low rates, combined with their closeness to the horizon, mean that few meteors are likely to be seen. To see the Lyrids, look to the north in the morning sky. About two handspans above the northern horizon is the bright, blue-white star alpha Lyra, the brightest star near the northern horizon. The Lyrid radiant is just above it and to the left by around a handspan.

Re:What about the 'rest of world' category?

[jgoemat]

Meteor showers usually originate from one point in the sky. For example, the Leonids originate from the Leo constellation. The Lyrids originate from the constellation lyra, which should be in a good position in the sky from 2:00 am to 5:00 am no matter where on earth you live, just like the sun will be in a good position in the sky from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm no matter where on earth you live.

Most meteor showers have a "peak" though where the earth passes through the densest part of the comet's trail. For this meteor shower, they don't appear to know when the peak will fall. For the Leonids the last couple of years they tried to predict, and that was a certain time that would be different in different time zones.

Happy skywatching!

Re:What about the 'rest of world' category?

[tiled_rainbows]

Hold your hand out at arm's length. People with big hands generally have longer arms, so the degrees of sky covered by your hand at arm's length should be roughly the same for anyone.

Re:What about the 'rest of world' category?

[ozbird]

Southern hemisphere won't see anything

Really? We've got the Pi-Puppids plus a circumpolar "bright" comet, C/2001 Q4 (NEAT).

Also, the Lyrids are not the first meteor shower of the year; the first of several showers before the Lyrids are the Quadrantids. Downunder, but not left out...

Wow.

[nickochee]

"Every year in April Earth plows through Thatcher's dusty debris stream with a relative velocity of 49 km/s (110,000 mph). Meteoroids (most no bigger than grains of sand)..."

Speeds up to 110,000 miles per hour coming from meteoroids always remind me of how fast we're traveling on this pale blue dot.

It's all fun and games until one hits Earth

[ObviousGuy]

It makes a little more sense to me to search for our "LEV meteor/asteroid" in these known meteor shower zones. A rogue asteroid hitting the earth would require the overcoming of astronomical odds on par with hitting an incoming missile with an interceptory missile. Since we know and can track these meteor showers, I imagine that scanning the areas in which the space debris exists is the first place we ought to be looking for life-ending rocks.

So THAT'S what those things were!?!

[Gunfighter]

I think I saw a few of those suckers streaking across the sky a night or two ago. It was the first time I'd seen more than one "shooting star" in a night. I guess I was wrong. It's not an extraterrestrial planetary attack plan in progress.

/me removes tinfoil hat

Re:So THAT'S what those things were!?!

[Gunfighter]

Dangit... I just took the trash out. Now I have to sculpt a new tinfoil hat from scratch.

Re:I'd love to post my pics but...

[baximus]

If you're looking for a place to host your stuff, check out PlanetMirror - can't hurt to send 'em an email. support (AT) planetmirror.com

Timing

[TheJavaGuy]

Couldn't this article have been posted earlier, and not a few hours before the action.

Forgive my ignorance

[caitsith01]

Being a non-astronomer I guess I assumed that you would have to wait until the side of the earth you were on faced towards the area of space where the comet was. How does someone on the far side of the earth see the meteors? Does the fact that they are visible at or before dawn across the world imply that the comet's position is relatively static compared to the position of the sun?

Re:Ho hum

[WwWonka]

Meteor showers used to be cool years ago when I used to take drugs and watch them. Now that I've quit all that stuff, they just don't excite me anymore :(

Funny, now that you've stopped taking drugs you aren't very exciting either.

Extraordinary

[Vlar]

the article mentioned 5-20 meteors per hour. I was wondering if anyone knew how many meteors you can expect in an average forecasted meteor (not bathing) shower?

Re:Extraordinary

[jesterzog]

Well 5-20 is on the average to higher side as far as showers tend to go, but it's also important to point out that the meteor shower numbers are frequently misleading if you're not familiar with how they're calculated.

Normally that number refers to what you'd be expected to see if you're in a completely dark sky, able to see in all directions at once, and with the radiant directly overhead. Realistically this isn't normally what happens.

Most people live near a populated area, so they only see the brighter meteors. It's also unusual to be directly underneath the radiant, so some of the meteors (up to half) may be below the local horizon. Also, you can't look in all directions. People who observe meteor showers properly often work in groups, with each person assigned a particular area of the sky to keep watch on.

There are often exceptions and perhaps you'll get lucky, but don't be too surprised or disappointed if you only see one meteor every 10 or 20 minutes, or maybe less than that. Although the article states about 5-20, Gary Kronk's meteor page comments that there can be occasional bursts of up to 100. Don't get your hopes up too much though, or you'll end up disappointed.

grammar nazis

[circletimessquare]

your average grammar/ spelling/ punctuation nazi on the internet is a dull troll

but a grammar nazi with a sense of humor?

different beast altogether ;-)

Re:grammar nazis

[flewp]

Yeah, and they're nothing compared to the ones that lose their humor.

Suggested Camera Settings?

[Alan]

I'm a bit of an amateur photographer, and was wondering what the more experienced ones out there would set their cameras up with as far as shutter speed / apateur for this event? I figure I'll set my digital as long as it'll go at f8 or however small of an apateur I can set, but is that good or not?

Re:Suggested Camera Settings?

[Gunark]

With most digital cameras you will get a lot of static in your image. I tried doing this with my Olympus C-3030 during the 2002 Leonoids, and my pictures turned out terrible -- more static than anything else.

As far as I know film is the way to go for long exposures.

(There's actually a way to eliminate at least some of the static if you're crafty with Photoshop -- the static tends to show up on the same pixels on you camera's CCD, so if you take one fully dark photo you can use it to substract the static in subsequent pictures).

Re:Suggested Camera Settings?

[nonameisgood]

No digital, most of the CCD's will overheat on long (minute+) exposures.

As for film, the best way I've used is to get to a really dark place, or at least no glowing of the sky. Open the shutter with a remote or bulb and leave it that way until you see one. Close the shutter and try again...we are talking minutes - you could have to wait 5-10 minutes in some cases.

It also works to leave the shutter open through several streakers. If you are persistent, you may get a good "earthgrazer" that travels the entire span of the sky.

Check out www.spaceweather.com (sorry, not in the mood to html this.)

Re:Suggested Camera Settings?

[register_ax]

Go for low aperture like you said, f8 or whatever. (You always want your aperture setting as small as possible for making distinct clarity in your images.)

Set your ISO on the lowest possible setting ISO 50 or 100. Most cameras will show noticeable interference with anything larger. Note the ISO Speed number demonstrates your cameras light sensitivity.

Then take shutter speed as long as possible to desired image.

Just practice on stars and what not to get a hang of your cameras capabilities. Also, I would recommend working in your cameras uncompressed formats if the card is big enough.

So yeah, a lot of this stuff is common sense, and that is largely what photograghy is. If you are truly a noob, you'll soon here photograghy is 10% knowing what you're doing and 90% being in the right place in the right time.

Re:Suggested Camera Settings?

[Cecil]

Actually, while CCDs typically exhibit tremendous noise during long exposures unless attached to a hefty peltier cooler (not that they overheat, they just like to be chilly), Canon's newer, top-end-ish cameras use CMOS sensors, which most astrophotography buffs have found to be very close to noiseless. Not quite film quality yet, but getting there.

My Digital Rebel is basically noiseless regardless of exposure length at ISO 100. There are one or two variously-colored CMOS hotspots a pixel or two wide (similar to a lit pixel on an LCD screen) that begin to show themselves after a minute or two, but other than that, it's crystal clear.

Re:Suggested Camera Settings?

[canthusus]

Generally right - reasonably narrow aperture & very long exposure.

Although other posters point out that digital camera noise can be a problem, there are workarounds. For a start, ensure that you turn the LCD off, if possible. Try to let the camera cool down between shots.

Your camera may have a low noise setting. If not, take a long exposure photograph with the lens cap on. This "dark" frame will be noisy because of hot CCD cells. In Photoshop/whatever, subtract this image from your photograph to subtract the noise.

For best results, take several dark field images and average them.

More information and advice from Digital Camera Astrophotography

Re:Suggested Camera Settings?

[David Kennedy]

Take a fully dark picture and use it to subtract static? Sounds familiar.

You're re-inventing some techniques familiar to astronomers. Back when CCDs (a) were very expensive (b) were very small and (c) had to be used in dewers they were mainly seen on telescopes.

The other technique (flat-fielding) was taking a picture of a uniform light source and using that to correct the apparent brightness across your images. (My flat fields at the time were terrible, should have been even, were striped and shaded instead. Modern CCDs are prolly a lot better.)

Re:Suggested Camera Settings?

[Ragnarr]

Go with long exposure times and use your shutter button to hold it open. Use no less than 400 ASA, and preferrably go and pick up some of the higher stuff (800 is nice) since you only have a limited time to pick up on these beautiful objects. A neat trick is to leave your camera open the entire hour or so and let it gather multiple trails. Not to mention you can see the stars shift as well.

Good luck

Re:Ho hum

[Anonymous Coward]

Then take drugs again. If it's the only way things in life are beautiful, wouldn't it be worthwhile? Maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'm horribly wrong and downing cehmicals to paint a better picture of reality is against the order of things. But I think maybe the mind expanders and the trippers and the pot smokers are on to something. When you can't sit under a tree on a sunny day anymore and not think of everything, have it all flood your mind, can't stop thinking of the scores of people dying, suffering, screaming out in pain for reasons so totally inane that you can't conceive how it can happen. When you don't see blue skies anymore, but refracted light, or leaves hanging from a branch without all the equations that tell you how exactly that leaf remains where it is, how it flutters in the wind, all of its coefficients and strengths and the exact moment it will finally let go and fall to the soil below. When you have to cover your eyes but still you see it all, and you end up crying about the things everyone else can seem to forget. Maybe then its needed; something to just wash it away, blank the canvas and put back all the colors, even if only for a little while. Temporary ignorance. Temporary peace. Just a little while to sit down and watch the lights in the sky, and think of nothing else at all.

Someone said the link was down?

[toiletsalmon]

Meteor Shower Peaks Before Dawn Thursday
By Robert Roy Britt
Senior Science Writer
posted: 07:42 am ET
21 April 2004

The annual Lyrid meteor shower peaks before dawn Thursday, April 22. Skywatchers in the Northern Hemisphere with dark skies away from city lights could see anywhere from 5 to 25 shootings stars per hour, or one every few minutes.

The timing of this year's version is good, because the Moon just passed its New phase and is out of the picture, its otherwise bright light not a factor.

The Lyrids are best seen between about 2 a.m. and daybreak local time, regardless of where you live, astronomers say. That's when the shower's radiant -- the point from which they appear to emanate -- is highest in the sky. The Lyrid radiant is in the constellation Lyra, and very near to the bright star Vega.

Vega is easy to find. It's in the eastern sky but nearly overhead in the predawn hours. It is the brightest star in that region of the sky and the 5th brightest star overall.

Lyrid meteors can appear anywhere in the sky. But if you trace each one back, it will point toward Vega. The shower is a result of Earth passing through a trail of debris left by a comet called Thatcher, which last passed through the inner solar system in 1861.

The Lyrid event is typically modest -- not as busy as the November Leonids or the August Perseids. But they are still cherished by devout meteor observers.

"The Lyrids are the first major annual shower of the season," said Robert Lunsford of the American Meteor Society.

But this April shower sometimes generates a brief outburst, when the rate can climb to more than one a minute. Seasoned observers might notice that the Lyrids move more quickly than typical meteors. Bright and persistent trails are common with the Lyrids.

Most shooting stars are generated by bits no larger than sand grains that vaporize when they plow into Earth's atmosphere. An occasional bright fireball is sometimes sighted amid the Lyrids, caused by debris perhaps the size of a pea or marble.

City and suburban dwellers will see significantly fewer of the meteors than those in rural areas away from all light pollution. The shower is not visible from the Southern Hemisphere.

To look for meteors, experts advise taking along a blanket or lounge chair, so you can recline and avoid neck strain. Dress warmer than you think necessary if you plan to be out for more than a few minutes. Find a spot with wide-open sky. Face east but scan as much of the sky as possible. Allow 15 minutes for your eyes to adjust to the darkness.

Another half-dozen or so meteors not associated with the Lyrids could be visible in any given pre-dawn hour, from dark rural locations, according to Lunsford. These other shooting stars could appear anywhere and move in any direction.

Live in the desert? Lucky dog!

[dulles]

If anybody out there lives in Nevada or near the Eastern High Sierras of California, I envy you: I would be in my car, or on my motorcycle, without hesitation, to enjoy a three hour drive into nowhere.
In the time I lived in the Eastern High Sierras (www.deepsprings.edu) I was lucky enough to witness two Leonid showers. They were, witout fail, among the most awe-some night-time events of my life.
So, you desert dwellers... waste no time in making the decision to go.
(I was also once witness to a paraselene - a fabulous sort of full-circle moon-rainbow. Beautiful!)

Re:Live in the desert? Lucky dog!

[gobbo]

I second that. I once saw the Perseids from Leh, at 12,500ft (3800m.) in the desert between the Karakoram and Himalaya. Boom! Rah! They looked like they were going to hit us, you could see chunks breaking off, and explosions.

Clear air... Go to the desert, and go high, to see the best meteor action.

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Comment removed based on user account deletion

Speed vs. velocity

[GrayTech]

SeaDour writes "The year's first meteor shower, the Lyrids, will peak in the pre-dawn hours of April 22nd when the Earth plows through the debris trail of Comet Thatcher at a relative velocity of 49 km/s

There is no direction given, so SeaDour should have used speed, not velocity. Or is this a convention often used in astronomy?

Re:Speed vs. velocity

[popoutman]

The direction is implicit in the statement "a relative velocity of 49 km/s". Relative velocity implies in the line-of-sight to object, though to be pedantically accurate the speed component should be -49km/sec, the distance between meteor and observer being lessened.

Lyrids?

[Anonymous Coward]

That's a relief. At first I thought it was the Lurids -- a different meteor shower which is too graphic and disturbing to watch and definitely Not Safe For Work.

Reporting Live.....

[NarrMaster]

All right, for the benefit of those that can't see the shower, I shall describe it for you......

There goes one..... theres another one!..... And another.... wow these are fast..... oooo, another one.....

In other news...

[use_compress]

There have been reports of dihidrogen oxide pellets in the skies over the Midwest. I'd advise the author of the post to attempt to observe this phenomenon.

Story posted at...

[adamofgreyskull]

story posted at: 11:04pm
time difference: +5 hours
local time posted: 04:04am

Thanks guys. Thanks.

Even worse, I didn't see the story until just now when I got up. Pisses me off, cause I was up until 1am working on my final year project...

Gee

[EmagGeek]

Thanks for the advance notice, guys...

Hardly the first

[DynaSoar]

"They year's first meteor shower..."

Make that "seventh":

Shower Range Peak radiant velocity population #/hour IMO
Quadrantids Jan 01-Jan 05 Jan 04 15 20 +49 41 2.1 120 QUA
delta-Cancrids Jan 01-Jan 24 Jan 17 08 40 +20 28 3.0 4 DCA
alpha-Centaurids Jan 28-Feb 21 Feb 08 14 00 -59 56 2.0 6 ACE
delta-Leonids Feb 15-Mar 10 Feb 25 11 12 +16 23 3.0 2 DLE
gamma-Normids Feb 25-Mar 22 Mar 13 16 36 -51 56 2.4 8 GNO
Virginids Jan 25-Apr 15 (Mar 24) 13 00 -04 30 3.0 5 VIR
Lyrids Apr 16-Apr 25 Apr 22 18 04 +34 49 2.1 18 LYR