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We’re now seeing an increase in meteor activity and the April Lyrids should reach their peak on the evening-night of April 22/23. Don’t expect high numbers of Lyrids because their maximum ZHR is usually around 15 to 20 and typical video capture rates can be 5/hr. At least there’ll be little interference from the Moon as it nears First Quarter and the Lyrid radiant doesn’t reach a good elevation until about 22 hrs local time.
The period of April 20 – 23 is a good opportunity to participate in the latest Lunar Impact Flashes (LIFs) observing campaign (even though Lyrid rates are significantly lower than the Geminids or Perseids)
They ask observers to video the dark / Earthshine area of the Moon recording at 10 fps or faster (I suggest at least 20 fps) and adjust the gain to show some lunar features, yet reducing the glare from the sunlit side – most useful for confirming and pinpointing LIFs reported by two or more stations. Embedded GPS-synched timestamps are ideal or use a computer with NTP timing accurate to the nearest second.
During last December’s Geminids LIF campaign I recorded 5-min duration AVIs which were manageable when post-processing through Tony Cook’s LIF auto-detection software, ALFI. (Other recording and detection software available).
Caution – a few hours of LIF monitoring consumes GBs of storage.
Clear skies,
Alex.
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