It is the rain that always breaks the meteor drought that occurs from January to mid-April, as there are no major meteor showers during that time frame. The Lyrid rain will cross the skies from April 16 to 25 and the best time to contemplate them will be before dawn on April 22, when we can enjoy about 10 to 20 meteors per hour. The next day will continue to be a good opportunity to contemplate the spectacle of the night sky.
While this meteor shower can be seen anywhere on Earth, the northern hemisphere will have the best views , especially rural areas away from city lights and therefore light pollution. Remember, the darker the better (something that is increasingly becoming the luxury of a lucky few).
How will the Moon be?
The show coincides with an almost full moon, so its brightness will mean that less meteors will be visible, but stargazers but if you contemplate them between midnight and dawn, you will not have so much trouble “hunting” them as they cross the sky, since the Moon will set before the hours of best observation before sunrise.
While the rain lacks persistent traces, it can produce fireballs , which are exceptionally bright meteors that can be seen over a very wide area. The misnamed ‘shooting stars’ are actually the remains of a comet.
How to locate the Rain of Lyrid?
To locate where the meteors will pass, you only have to locate the brightest star in the constellation of Lyra to find what astronomers call the “radiant”, the point where the meteors from Comet G1 Thatcher begin to emanate. Dust particles, when they come into contact with the atmosphere, leave that trail of light that we perceive as a ‘shooting star’. Although Thatcher is quite far from Earth, orbiting the Sun once every 415 years, she scatters cosmic debris along her path. The radiant is near the bright star Vega. This is just a casual alignment, as these meteors burn up in the atmosphere about 100 km up and Vega is billions of times farther, 25 light years away from Earth.
While meteor showers can be seen from Earth, the meteoroids that cause them are actually no larger than pebbles.
Did you know that the Lyrid rain was observed for the first time in 687 BC. C.? It is the longest rain that we have evidence of. Records of this rain go back about 2,700 years.
At times in history, the Lyrids have featured prominently, as in 1982, when American observers saw an outburst of nearly 100 meteors per hour. In Japan, a little earlier, in 1945 , observers also saw around 100 meteors per hour.
What is the extra surprise of this event?
The first supermoon of 2021 . Astronomy fans will be able to contemplate on April 26 and 27, a spectacular full moon at its closest point to Earth. From here, it will be up to 15% larger and 30% brighter than a typical full moon. This April moon is known as the pink moon because it refers to the flowering of this kind of old garden roses.
