The Lyrid meteor shower is a meteor shower that occurs between January and mid-April each year.
Website hen to observe this meteor shower? Nights of April 21-22 and April 23-24 are best viewed from dusk to dawn. The predicted peak date is April 23 at midnight. Also, to observe this meteor shower this year, the moonlight will not be an obstacle. Also you can observe the emitter point here with the constellation Lyra in the background. (Find the emitter point first and observe the meteor shower through it)
Inbox n a dark sky with no moon, you can see 10 to 15 meteors per hour. Sometimes it can go up to 100 per hour.
More ost meteor showers are caused by debris from a comet that passes Earth. But for the Lyrids meteor shower, the comet is named Comet Thatcher. Have you ever observed Comet Thatcher?
The answer is no. Your children cannot monitor it either. Astronomers first observed this comet in 1861, at its closest point to the Sun. It takes approximately 415 years to go around the Sun once. Its path takes it through the Earth's orbit, and then it goes far away from the Earth. How far is that? It travels at a distance of 110 astronomical units (AU). That distance is more than 110 times more than us from the sun.
So Comet Thatcher is now far away from our Sun, still moving outward. It reaches its furthest point from the Sun around 2070, and begins its return journey to reach its next closest around 2283.
The Lyrid meteor shower - spawned by this comet - has been observed to erupt unexpectedly in large numbers every 60 years. Accordingly, the next Lyrid eruption will occur around 2042.
This comet was discovered by Alfred E. Thatcher of New York City. Also known as C/1861 G1 (Thatcher) it was discovered on 5th April 1861. At that time, this comet was located in the Draco constellation.
This comet will come close to Earth again in 2278 years. But its debris will arrive in Earth's orbit every April as the Lyrid meteor shower.
