Lyrids Meteor Shower April 22, 2009 - Time to Visit the MeteorBlog Shop Enter by Clicking Here
No matter where you are globally, the majority of Lyrids meteors are likely to soar across the sky in the dark hour before dawn. To view the shower, locate a place devoid of artificial man-made lights. Get out that lawn or lounge chair so that you can look up to the heavens without straining your neck. I suggest focusing your gaze on the darkest part of the sky or around the vicinity of the shower’s radiant. Viewers should not expect to see a massive amount of streaking meteors because the Lyrids are known to produce a humble 10 to 20 meteors per hour. My favorite meteor fact concerning the Lyrids is that about twenty-five percent of these speedy Lyrids meteors show signs of persistent trains. These are ionized gas trails that shine for a second or two after the meteor has disappeared. In the past the Lyrids have produced major outbursts of up to 100 visible meteors per hour! There is usually no guarantee that a shower will be this spectacular, but I like to think positively and say there is a chance that viewers will see a major outburst. We all have to get out there and look. Lyrid meteors seem to materialize from a radiant near the constellation Lyra. The constellation gets its name from “the lyre”, a stringed pleasant-sounding instrument known for its use during ancient times. One of the brightest stars in the sky, Vega, is within this constellation that is located in the eastern sky. A crescent moon will not spoil the show so this is a pretty good year for the Lyrids meteor shower. You may also notice the planet Jupiter on the eastern horizon and at the end of the shower’s morning peak the planet Venus will rise in the sky! This makes for a nice ending to a great meteor shower.
Not only is this the peak date for the Lyrids Meteor Shower, but April 22 is also Earth Day. Earth Day was proposed to encourage consciousness and appreciation for the Earth’s environment. The United Nations celebrates an Earth Day each year on the March equinox, a tradition that was founded by peace activist John McConnell in 1969, but a second Earth Day was founded by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson in 1970 and is celebrated in many countries each year on April 22. Happy Earth Day!
on Apr 17th, 2009 at 1:13 am
Lyrids Meteor Shower Radiant – Where to look?
Viewers should look toward the eastern sky between 12am – 6am for best results. Please make your Lyrids Meteor Shower comments here. I look forward to reading them and joining in on the discussion!
Keep your head up.
- Meteor Mark
on Apr 17th, 2009 at 3:42 pm
I’m extremely happy I came across your site! I’ve made it a perma-link in my flock browser. Why? Because for MANY years I’ve lived in south Florida where light pollution is as thick as south Americans. I’ve recently traveled north for a while (2hrs N.) to a town where the night sky is THICK with stars. When I 1st saw the night sky here I was shocked to say the least. I was here during the Leonid & Geminid showers. Funny thing is at the time I had no clue these showers were going on…well…being shocked by the clear night sky I was looking up almost every night until at one point, early Nov., I saw a really bright yellowish/orange shooting star and freaked out (the response when seeing meteors is SO involuntary, right!?). Well I just thought with sky’s this clear I guess you always see meteors. Well I just kept seeing more and more and MORE, to the point I realized…wait a minute, something is happening here. – Needless to say, before this time in my life I had seen maybe 2 or 3 showers in my life, I’m 30, and on one occasion, during the Leonids, I saw a ‘fireball’, do they call it that, where the meteor is BIG and the trail it left behind was MANY diff. colors like a rainbow. Talk about going from laying position to standing faster than a hummingbird! haha!
Well I’m convinced I will NEVER AGAIN miss a shower. And to a novice gazer like myself, your site is fantastic. Honestly!
Take care, keep cluing the clueless in (like myself) and I’ll keep an eye out for your kind wisdom!
- James T.
on Apr 17th, 2009 at 5:55 pm
James,
Thanks for the kind words, feel free to post any sightings here or anywhere on the site. I share in your enthusiasm for meteors too!
What you described did sound like a fireball. Have you had a look at the glossary on this site? There is further descriptions about fireballs there.
You may also want to use the search feature on the site and type in “colors” I wrote a cool article about fireball colors.
The Lyrids should be decent, but there are some really active showers coming up in the next month.
Keep your head up and check in once in a while!
- Meteor Mark
on Apr 18th, 2009 at 12:11 am
Hey Meteor Mark,
Still waiting for your reply.
on Apr 18th, 2009 at 1:08 am
Aravindhan,
What is your question? On occasion some comments are moved to the bulk folder and I don’t receive them.
- Meteor Mark
on Apr 18th, 2009 at 2:27 am
Here’s the question :
How do i make out if what i saw in the sky is really a meteorite and not anything else? Is there some distinguishing property with which i can be certain that the object is a meteorite? And also could you give me a rough idea of how fast these things move across the sky?
on Apr 18th, 2009 at 2:36 am
Thanks for your question. You may find some good information in the glossary here on the site.
There a few differences between meteors, meteorites, fireballs, and meteoroids.
The glossary button is in the upper right hand corner of the site.
Most meteors look like a streak of light that may last 1 or 2 seconds and generally move in any direction in the sky. I would say by the time you see one, if you lifted your arm to point at it, it would be gone from sight.
They move across the sky a lot faster than the meteor gif image in this comment.
Hope this helps and keep your head up!
- Meteor Mark
on Apr 20th, 2009 at 6:20 am
Ok that clarifies things.Will check out the glossary.
Thanks for answering and keep up the good work!!
on Apr 21st, 2009 at 11:39 am
Hi, I just met this special someone, actually re-met. She just came back from hawaii. We were long lost good friends that just re-united. It’s been almost 10 years that we lost contact. I noticed that she really like looking at shooting star in the sky. She say Hawaii have alot of those, and she really loved it. I really want to let her know that she is still a very special person in my heart. Living in San Francisco for almost 20 years, I only saw a shooting star like once. So I decided to go online and google for a website that might be specialize in these type of category. This site seem to be it. Well my question is, is it possible to see the Lyrid Meteor Shower in San Francisco? And which place in San Francisco will be the best to spot this Lyrid meteor shower. I am willing to drive anywhere in the bay area to spot this Lyrid Meteor Shower. Let me know the place and time, I don’t care where it is and how late it will be (as long if it is in the bay area. Is there anyone that can help me with this question? Maybe Meteor Mark? Or anyone?. Thank you so much for your time.
Gladly appreciated,
Mau Vu
on Apr 21st, 2009 at 8:53 pm
Hey,
We went out this morning about 2hrs before sunrise and didn’t see anything. But, we are all getting up at about 4a.m. in the morning (Wed.) to see the peak. You did say the hr. before sunrise right? Mabye we will get lucky. And yes, I will have on my #1 Meteor Mom shirt. hahaha
on Apr 21st, 2009 at 8:59 pm
Mau,
The radiant for the Lyrids meteor shower is the constellation Lyra and should be in the eastern sky for people in the northern hemisphere, this includes California. You will see a bright star Vega, which should be east of the Little Dipper. You can virtually look to any part of the sky and see Lyrids Meteors. The radiant is just where the meteors will seem to originate from.
Have a look at the glossary on this site and the section “meteor shower viewing”, both are located in the top right corner.
Keep your head up!
- Meteor Mark
on Apr 21st, 2009 at 9:03 pm
Meteor Mom,
Great to here from you! Look toward your eastern sky an hour or two before sunrise on Wednesday. You may notice at the end of the shower the planet Venus will rise above the horizon!
You may also notice Jupiter too! What is the difference between stars and planets when you view them? Stars twinkle and planets just shine, check it out, it’s cool!
- Meteor Mark
Oh yeah and keep your head up!
on Apr 21st, 2009 at 9:27 pm
Hey, thanks, we were just looking at Venus the other morning through the Telescope. didn’t really see anything special though cause its not the best telescope and it was getting too light outside.
Thanks as always for the wonderful info.
I will let you know if we see anything.
Keeping our head up.
on Apr 21st, 2009 at 9:30 pm
MM,
I look forward to reading what you saw! I may have a rain out, ugh!
MM
K.Y.H.U.
on Apr 22nd, 2009 at 2:34 am
I took this girl I really like out to the Blue Ridge Parkway tonight to see the meteor shower and we had a blast! As soon as we parked it started raining so we decided to drive on down the parkway… then it started snowing! We drove about 15 miles farther and the rain/snow stopped so we pulled over to a over look and parked. I got the blankets and pillows out and we just laid there for about 2 1/2 hours talking. We saw about 13 all together and got drizzled on a little, but it was worth the 2 super bright ones we saw! thanks for all the information I got from your site!
on Apr 22nd, 2009 at 2:36 am
Jeremy,
Sounds great. Bookmark the site, the next meteor shower is much better. Stay tuned!
- Meteor Mark
on Apr 22nd, 2009 at 2:42 am
First off, Jeremy that sounds awesome. I went out alone and kept wishing my husband was here, he is at work.
I just got back in. It was so neat. Thank you so much for all the information. I almost wanted to get my girls up to watch!
on Apr 22nd, 2009 at 5:53 am
We got up about 4a.m. and went out. Only saw about 10 in the hour & 1/2. Didn’t bother waking the boys up for only those few. They would have gotten bored with the minimal action. I had fun though and it was very relaxing to just sit there in the quiet. We will wait to see when the next one is and try again for them.
K.O.H.U. till then
on Apr 22nd, 2009 at 6:27 am
Hey, what about the π-Puppids Meteor Shower? Is it going to be any better?
on Apr 22nd, 2009 at 1:57 pm
Meteor Mom,
The π-Puppids will not be better. Check back the first day of next month, I am doing research now.
Keep your head up!
- Meteor Mark
on Apr 22nd, 2009 at 8:46 pm
Just a science question: why would the hours between midnight and an hour before sunrise show more meteors? Is it technically darker after midnight than say, 11 p.m.? Does time zone matter at all?
on Apr 22nd, 2009 at 8:50 pm
Penny,
Science question?
Cool, I love science questions! Have a look at this post: When to Look
Thanks for the question. In the meantime bookmark the site and check back with me each month.
Please let me know if the post explains it for you.
- Meteor Mark
on Apr 22nd, 2009 at 11:52 pm
will there be any meter shower on the morning of the 23.
on Apr 22nd, 2009 at 11:56 pm
John,
Yes, but it will be passed it’s peak, so have a look at my last post: Next Meteor Shower May Come Soon and the meteor shower viewing section on the site which is located on the top right corner.
- Meteor Mark