Heads up , uranologist . TheLyridmeteor shower is here and it ’s going to reach peak activity this Easter .
The Lyrid meteoroid shower takes place between April 16 and April 25 , and will top out on the dark ofApril 22 .
Those in the Northern Hemisphere are well posit for glimpsing a few meteors , but the event should also be visible in the Southern Hemisphere between midnight and sunrise . As with any meteor shower , you should find a colored area , far away from city light , and remain outside for around 20 to 30 minutes to take into account your centre to become adjusted to the low light .
As far as meteor shower go , the Lyrids are not the most vital and dramatic . Visibility might also be hamper by moonlight , as April 23 will also see a bright humpbacked Moon , which is very close to a full Moon .
That said , the Lyrid shooting star shower is often visible to the naked eye and you could expect to see anything from five to 20 meteors per minute . Plus , collapse the time of year , many role of the world should be enjoying comparatively absolved sky ( with a bit of hazard ) .
The Lyrids get their name from the fact they appear to beam from the area of the sky near the configuration Lyra , whose shining star isVega , some 25 light - old age away . However , do n’t allow that disquiet you as the meteors can appear anywhere in the sky .
The meteoroid total from debris fly off the tail of cometC/1861 G1 ( Thatcher)at speeds of 49 kilometer ( 30 miles ) per second . As these chunk of cosmic dust hit Earth ’s atmosphere , they will burn up and leave a streaking tail .
People have been enjoying the Lyrids for at least 2,700 years . They were first indite about by Zuo Qiuming , a Chinese writer and contemporary of Confucius , in 687 BCE who described " stars that fell like rain . " So who knows , perhaps China ’s most influential philosopher was an booster of the Lyrids too .
The Lyrids also play an important role in the astronomical custom of an Aboriginal Australian mathematical group have intercourse as the Boorong kin group . This clan no longer exist in its odd form and their tradition were only transfer through the historic period by word of mouth , butwe do knowthat to them , the Lyrids lay out the scratching of the malleefowl bird , represented by the star Vega , during its period of cosmic nest - construction .
