If you're
the kind of person who loves scanning the skies to see what's going on out
there, or perhaps you've just got nothing else on right now, there's going to
be a show for the next couple of nights as the Lyrid meteor shower is going to
be putting on a performance
The
meteor shower is expected to start doing it's stuff from Sunday through to the
early Wednesday morning, the peak of the action is expected to be on Tuesday
night.
The Lyrid
meteor shower is an annual event, and is made up from debris from a comet
called Thatcher.
The Lyrid
shower is created as falling debris from the aforementioned comet as it burns
up in Earth's atmosphere.
You'll
have to stay up a bit late if you're actually going to catch any of the magic,
though. The best time to watch it - according to astronomers - is between
midnight and dawn.
Obviously,
it goes without saying that you'll need to be under clear skies, and preferably
somewhere with less light pollution in order to see the sky as clearly as
possible.
To have
the best chance of enjoying the show to the fullest, you should head outside
and look to the east.
For those
who are a bit better versed in our celestial furniture, the radiant point of
the shower is near to the constellation Lyra.
Bill
Cooke, a meteor expert from NASA, told Space.com that if you want to catch the
end of it on Wednesday, the optimum time for that is going to be just before
dawn, but at about 10:30PM local time you'll start seeing those trademark
flashes across the night sky.
In
previous years, there have been 'outbursts' of as many as 100 meteors per hour.
That would be quite something, wouldn't it?
It's
quite a rare phenomenon, but there's a chance.
Luckily
for those in the UK and the USA, the Northern Hemisphere is where the Lyrid
shower is going to be most visible.
NASA
advice suggests that you come 'prepared with a sleeping bag, blanket or lawn
chair'.
"Lie flat on your back with your feet facing east and look up, taking in as much of the sky as possible."
After
about half an hour in the pitch black, your eyes will 'adapt and you will begin
to see meteors'.
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