The Lyrids are coming

[BobSki]

The radiant of the Lyrid meteor shower is located in the constellation Lyra, near the brightest star of the constellation, Alpha Lyrae, or Vega. Although they should apparently appear all over the sky.

This years shower is set to peak NEXT WEDNESDAY 22nd April.

You guys probably already knew that but I thought I'd mention it just in case.

[BobSki]

Further to the above, according to the "clear outside" app, the sky should be perfectly clear that night.

[ronin]

Now this could be useful, seems to fall at a good time, just need to find out how high up Lyra is fairly early on.

[JB80]

Starts rising a little before midnight here for me, of course that is much farther south than you guys.

Should be directly overhead in the wee hours around 5am. 

[FenlandPaul]

The Moon should be nicely out of the way as well, so definitely looking forward to this!

[allcart]

They are already showing up. I've had 10 in the last 5 days on my west facing meteor cam. 5 of those were last night between 9.45pm and 1am.

The sky is still dominated by sporadics, so still plenty to catch.

[Pete Presland]

Going to probably set the alarm for around 3am and get the last couple of hours before dawn.

[BobSki]

It looks like Lyra (with its brightest star Vega) will be rising above the horizon around 8pm at 025deg (NNE) but it will of course still be daylight then. It looks to me like the most useful time to start observing is around midnight when Lyra should be at 080deg (East) and an elevation of about 39deg above the horizon.

Clear skies and good seeing everyone

[dick_dangerous]

Saw one on Saturday night as the wind came belting through - remarkably long but not super-bright. Am planning an excursion to view tomorrow night, plus I have a new bat detector. Could be a good one!

DD

[Nathan_Pembs]

Spotted a couple last night, very bright one around 11:30pm. Forecast looks good for tonight here

[Kishen20]

Missed the Lyrids peak, maybe I'll try the Pi Puppids which has a decent ZHR of 40, but the half moon interferes as the moon sets about the same time as the radiant.

It's sad you guys up north can't be able to see it, but I hope your lyrids will be great! 

[Kishen20]

Sorry for the double post- Forgot to say the peak date is the 24th of April.

[scarp15]

I caught a few darting about last night from Cawfields on Hadrians Wall. It seemed to pick up from 1.20am, they were quite occasional, though I might also have missed a few as I was observing the Glob's. One in particular though was very brightly lite up like a beacon, quite a dramatic fleeting occurrence. 

[Bart]

Nothing here so far

Barry

[Nathan_Pembs]

Been poor so far, only 2 in past hour or so

[goodricke1]

Saw 4 since 11pm but none particularly spectacular

[Bart]

Giving up. "Saw" one out of the corner of my eye and that's it. Going to bed

Barry

[cotterless45]

Under the best sky that we've had for weeks and not a meteor in sight ,

Nick.

[Nathan_Pembs]

Roll on the Perseids, will probably be cloudt

[JemC]

I saw probably 4 in the time i was out, there was 1 quite bright and long that was quite spectacular over towards the area of Cygnus,

[loakessg]

Not sure if I saw one or not. Expecting to see what look like shooting stars and just see a long bright trail across the sky. What I saw was an orange blob about golf ball size shot across the sky then seemed to bumble around a bit and die off???

[Nathan_Pembs]

Best one for me was more like a fireball in the Bootes area, heading down towards the horizon. Bright green, was slow moving, more a trickle than a streak if light. Seemed to break up too

[BobSki]

I was out in my back garden from 10:30pm until the clouds rolled in at 03:50am. In that 51/4hrs I saw 31 meteors. Most of them were just fast streaks across the sky. Three were more exciting. My 6th meteor was sighted at around 12:25-12:30 and it was the best one of the night, crossing East to West (as indeed most of them were) just below Polaris, it had a long White tail and was visible for a couple of seconds.

Then I think it was my 12th or 13th sighting that was again quite stunning. It was about 01:15-01:30, again crossing East to West directly overhead my observation point, South of Polaris. The next one worth mentioning occured around 03:10am in the same area. Around 03:50am the clouds rolled in at great spead and soon had total cover, so it was time for bed.

Unfortunately my garden is surrounded by obstacles and if I lay on a recliner chair almost flat I have Polaris just visible above the roof of my hous and I get to see a slice of sky from Polaris down to about 35 or 40deg, so not much really.

Anyway I'm glad I did it and next time I will get my camp bed and thermals out.

[Tomjo59]

Was out for 4 hours between 22:00 and 02:00, and counted 13 Lyrids (in between looking at other things through the scope) in that time. Including one very bright (maybe mag -5 ?), green meteor at 00:58 BST, with a wide trail, moving East to West, from Leo through Hydra. Most of the ones I saw had long trails.

[BobSki]

I think that would have been behind obstructions for me.