Hey, Space Placers!
We had a chance to see the Northern Lights (Aurora) earlier this week https://wtop.com/local/2025/04/northern-lights-may-be-visible-wednesday-from-the-dc-area-heres-how-to-see-them/. What you may not have known is that the April 16th Geomagnetic Storm that was causing the Aurora was also sending electrical currents into the ground https://spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=18&month=04&year=2025 which were very high near the DMV!
Now we can gear up for another sky show - the Lyrids Meteor Shower https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/everything-you-need-to-know-lyrid-meteor-shower/ which is ongoing until April 29th but peaks on the night of April 21-22. From a dark sky site with no moon one can expect about a dozen Lyrids per hour. The shower has been known to produce an “outburst” of a 100 Lyrids an hour.
Each year at this time our planet encounters a debris stream of cometary dust made by Comet Thatcher. As Earth moves in its orbit around the Sun it collides with this debris stream and the cometary debris particles hit our atmosphere to become “shooting or falling stars”.
Traveling at 29 miles per second (110,000 miles per hour) these cometary bits hit the atmosphere 80 miles up and heat the atmosphere white hot which is what we see. Usually the size of a grain of sand they can also be as big as a marble. Speed plus size makes for a lot of “oohhs and aahhhs”.
You do not need any equipment or know how to enjoy the show - just find a place where you can put a lounge chair or blanket to see the sky. Starting at 10 p.m. in the northeast the constellation for which this meteor shower is named - Lyra - hangs low above the horizon and will rise higher as the night progresses. A meteor that is part of the shower can be traced back to Lyra. Sporadic meteors that are not part of the shower can be seen during the night as well.
The shower should improve after midnight and Lyrids can appear anywhere in the sky but looking straight up gives you the widest viewing area - this is where the lounge chair or blanket come in handy. The moon will interfere a bit with viewing the shower just before dawn.
If you are a city dweller you still may see the brightest Lyrids as long as you are not staring into a street light or nestled in amongst tall buildings. The view of the Lyrids is worth it from the suburbs as long as lights and obstructions are minimized as best you can.
Enjoy the shower with family, friends or your significant other. Some food and beverages are an added plus. Be sure to have extra clothing as it can get cool at night.
Weather is predicted to be cloudy https://wtop.com/weather/ during the peak so we will just have to see.
If the cloud gods allow, and you are up before dawn, that brilliant orb in the East is Venus! There is much still happening in the sky as we wind down April so check it out https://wtop.com/the-space-place/2025/04/whats-up-in-the-sky-for-april-2025-venus-lyrids-meteor-shower-and-more/
Sky Guy in CA
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