This week, the annual Lyrid meteor shower returns to the spring skies. Although energetic since 16 April, the shower peaks throughout the late night of Wednesday 22 April and early the subsequent morning.
The chart reveals the view wanting east from London at 00.01 (BST) on Thursday 23 April. The origin level of the meteors, generally known as the radiant, is labelled Lyrids. It sits in the constellation of Lyra, the Lyre, shut to the shiny star of Vega.
The meteors will seem to emanate from the radiant, fanning out in all instructions at a most charge of about 18 an hour. The meteors themselves are characterised by being shiny and quick, typically leaving smokey ‘trains’ throughout the sky.
Records of the Lyrids stretch again to 687BC. In more moderen occasions, their origin has been tied to comet Thatcher, which was found in 1861. The meteoroids that dissipate in our ambiance to produce the meteor shower had been as soon as a part of the comet’s tail of mud.
The finest views will most likely come after midnight and when your eyes have adjusted to the darkish – a course of that takes 20 to half-hour.
The view from the southern hemisphere is restricted as a result of the radiant will lie low in the northern sky.
