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After the low meteor rates during early spring, the April Lyrids herald the return of more activity to come. They are active throughout the second half of the month, usually producing low numbers and this year their maximum of about 15 meteors per hour is expected to occur on April 22 at around 18:00 UT, so that night should offer quite moderate activity.
Observations are best made after midnight and the last quarter Moon should be of little hindrance. The Lyrids’ radiant lies between the Keystone of Hercules and Lyra. They are reasonably fast meteors with geocentric velocities of 47 km/s; their parent body is comet C/1861 G1 (Thatcher).
Hi,
Forecast not brilliant for here but there is a chance of some clear(ish) skies. Currently broken cloud, however trying a radio experiemnt this year by monitoring the GB3MBA meteor beacon on 50.408MHz. Not much atcivity yet but I’m getting a few “pings”.
For a change my presentation at this years IMC will be radio orientated rather than spectroscopy!
Cheers,
Bill.Had a quick check of my cameras and the activity was very low. Nothing of note at all!
Even on the wide field camera there was only one meteor and it wasn’t a Lyrid….
With the peak predicted for tomorrow hopefully the activity will increase tonight.Good luck, Bill.
The Lyrids can produce bursts of activity, but to be honest, they’re usually a disappointment for me.
Alex.The RAS has launched a video on observing the Lyrids.
Last night (April 21/22) was clear in Chelmsford and I got 102 single station Lyrids along with 45 sporadics, 5 alpha Virginids and 2 eta Aquarids. As expected activity peaked in the early morning hours with events every few minutes from 0300 UT to dawn.
I recently tried using a ZWO camera and a wide angle lens to look for meteors. I take a series of 30 second exposures and I noticed on several nights I get images with multiple bright parallel lines such as the one attached. I wondered if these could be meteors or are they some sort of lens flare? I just thought it was suspicious to get 3 meteors so close together and parallel within a 30 second period. Other frames have a convincing single meteor.
The sky started off reasonably clear last night but after only about 30 minutes the clouds rolled in and showed no sign of shifting. All I saw was one mag 3 Lyrid! Hopefully have better conditions this evening.
I just thought it was suspicious to get 3 meteors so close together and parallel within a 30 second period.
Specular reflectance flares from satellite constellations perhaps ?
Cheers
RobinOnly 10 Lyrids on my NW facing camera last night 21/22nd, though cloud was patchy and completely clouded over by 02:00 UT so probably missed the peak
Hi,
The sky cleared fairly well but some high cloud persisted. Activity seemed low with very few Lyrids captured. Caught 6 fairly bright ones on the wide field camera. However no spectra at all! Changed times, they might not be very useful/interesting but it’s rare when I DON’T get a spectrum of some sort each night!
Might get some clear sky again tonight, we’ll see.Philip, as Robin says these look very like specular reflections from the new, true vermin of the sky. On real time video one can watch them polluting their way across the sky. For every meteor I catch I must get 20/30/40 satellites. The most I’ve had in one video clip was 12! Even adjusting the various slow object settings, with the low light capability of the fast optics I can’t quite kill them all off… rather infuriating and depressing at the same time!
Can I ask what camera and lens you are using? I also use a ZWO ASI120MM-S and a 1.8mm f1.4 fisheye lens which is a near all sky and good for fireball monitoring.
I’m currently upgrading the enclosure with some small fans and heating elements. Hopefully be finished by the Perseids this year.Cheers,
Bill.HI Robin, yes I suspect you’re right but I should be able to check that possibly with the satellite predictions in Stellarium
Hi Bill,
I’m using a ZWO ASI 290M M and the 2.1mm lens which came with it. It covers most of the sky but not all. I need to design some sort of enclosure because so far I have just left the camera out and trusted the weather forecast that it wouldn’t rain. I was thinking of buying a clear dome for the camera and there seem to be plenty available although what the optical quality is like I don’t know. Have you got any recommendations?
Satellites are a nuisance these days but still number 3 after clouds and street lights!
Cheers
PhilI had good conditions between 23:20-03:15 UT. My 4 cameras (2 RMS and 2 UFO) captured 76 meteors of which 44 were Lyrids.
A few Lyrids around 03:00 were mag -1, although conditions deteriorated then and twilight approached.
Looks like I’ll have variable cloud cover tonight(Apr 22/23). Let’s see what the Lyrids decide to do.
Hi,
I use a dome I got from a complete system I bought from ebay a few years back. I had a look but unfortunately I can’t find the page, dealer probably gone. It was cheaper to buy the enclosure/dome and camera than just the enclosure/dome….Sorry I don’t have any specific recommendations. However beware some of the plastic/perspex domes from onli\ne suppliers. I’ve found the quality to be variable with some good and some pretty poor.
Cheers,
Bill.Hi Phil,
As Bill commented, perspex domes can be of varying quality and transparency. Glass can be better, although you need to consider ventilation and a heater to combat dew.
Meteor networks such as AllSky7 and FRIPON house their cameras under domes, although GMN don’t advise this because they’re concerned about calibrating the field distortions for analysis. This is of no concern if you’re monitoring meteors for your own interest.
Alex.
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