Lyrid Meteors

[BinocularSky]

Apparently one of the Astro mags has the Lyrids peaking on the night of the 22nd. If so, this is incorrect; it peaks on the morning of the 22nd. The salient information for 2012 is (all times UT):

Active: April 16-25

Peak (Range): April 21 21:30 - April 22 08:30

Peak (Ideal): April 22 05:30

Mean Zenithal Hourly Rate (ZHR): 18 (but is higher when the peak occurs near the ideal time, and lower when it is near the extremes of the range)

Maximum recorded ZHR: 90 (1982)

The radiant rises around 18:30 and transits at around 04:00 (southern UK).

Yes, this is the first time, for over a year, that the Moon will not interfere at all with meteor observations, so watch out for Murphy's Variable Nebula to peak simultaneously.

[richbyers]

was that in astronomy now? i have that issue, and it was featured

[symesie04]

Why do i feel a solid week of cloud for that week

[richbyers]

perfect conditions on paper= terrible conditions in reality

[Photosbykev]

Saturday Night to Sunday Morning AND with a New Moon you just know there will be a freak Snow blizzard to spoil it.

But I'm planning to have a 7D and fisheye shooting all night straight up and another camera pointing more directly at the source (ish)

[JB80]

It's my wifes birthday the Saturday, I don't think I have enough browny points to sit out all night.

[iwatkins]

Similar to Kev, hope to have a DMK with 2.1mm lens fitted shooting multi second subs all night.

Of course, it be raining.

Cheers

Ian

[cotterless45]

Got be better than last year's. Was looking forward to sitting up the dark site, just seen my son has given us tickets to Alegria; Cirque du Soleil for that very night, nice.

[sologuitarist61]

Saturday Night to Sunday Morning AND with a New Moon you just know there will be a freak Snow blizzard to spoil it.

But I'm planning to have a 7D and fisheye shooting all night straight up and another camera pointing more directly at the source (ish)

I have a fisheye (Samyang 8mm - a lens I can recommend highly even though it is purely manual) so would like to have a go; what sort of exposure would you give each shot?

[JB80]

What I normally do and it may not be the best way but I just set the camera to the maximum exposure you can do without trails or too much LP and leave it on continuous shoot.

That said I haven't caught a meteor yet.

[Tyr]

I was out on Saturday night (21/04/12) and saw what I think were a couple of these 23:03 and 23:38, I was pretty chuffed to see them given how unfavourable the conditions seemed to be for observing much else.

Tyr

[Alastair Rae]

I'd given up on clear skies on Sat even though I was staying in a nice pub B&B in a dark village in the South Downs. I stuck my head out the door before heading off to bed and was astonished to see it had cleared. Went out for about an hour but only saw two shooting stars.

[KevR]

After playing at a charity concert in Honiton, saw a short one, then drove to Ilfracombe, skies partially cleared and saw 3 in 5 minutes, including a very bright one, all overhead and moving fast. Would love to have looked for more but 2 very tired kids in car....

[SteveWxm]

Clear skies between 11pm and 2am in the hills around Llangollen. Hardly any light pollution and between 4 of us must have been around 15 shooting stars. 4/5 of which were bright orange and travelling from East to West ish. Seems we were very lucky with the weather (bar it being freezing) as everyone else seems to have been clouded out

[Andrewsean1985]

What direction should I look and what time should there be some good ones tonight? (24/04/2012)

[BinocularSky]

What direction should I look and what time should there be some good ones tonight? (24/04/2012)

A bit late for last night but, in case its useful in future:

• This year the Lyrids has not been particularly prolific and we are well past the maximum, so you would have been unlikely to have seen more Lyrids than sporadics. However, because of the geometry of the situation, all else being equal, you are likely to see more meteors if you are on Earth's "leading edge". This is the bit of Earth that is between local midnight and local midday, so your best viewing period is between local midnight and the end of local astronomical twilight, currently approx 01:00 to 03:30 BST for southern England. At this time of year, there is no astronomical twilight in northern Scotland, so observers there will miss the fainter meteors (but, if you are away from light pollution, observers there will still have a better chance than those of us in light-polluted southern England).
  
• Meteors, including shower meteors, can occur anywhere in the sky. Best option is to lie on a recliner and look upwards.