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Coffee House => Coffee House Boards => CH / Science and Technology => Topic started by: blobrana on April 21, 2004, 11:02:32 AM

Title: Look to the East, before the dawn breaks...
Post by: blobrana on April 21, 2004, 11:02:32 AM

 If you want to catch some bright Lyrid meteors, wake up and go outside one or two hours before dawn on Thursday, April 22nd.


 Earth is passing through a stream of debris from Comet Thatcher ( the source of the annual Lyrid meteor shower and tomorrow is when the shower peaks...)

They stream from a point in the constellation Lyra near the bright star Vega. (er, just look to the East)
Expect to see about 30 shooting stars per hour, (that one every two minutes!)...

Title: Re: Look to the East, before the dawn breaks...
Post by: Karlos on April 21, 2004, 02:11:51 PM

Debris from Comet Thatcher?

Chips from the old Ice Maiden herself :lol:

Title: Re: Look to the East, before the dawn breaks...
Post by: bloodline on April 21, 2004, 02:33:17 PM

Quote

Karlos wrote:
Debris from Comet Thatcher?

Chips from the old Ice Maiden herself :lol:

A massive, unstoppable lump of ice traveling at thausands of miles an hour on a predictable path of destruction... you're right it does sound like her :-D

Title: Re: Look to the East, before the dawn breaks...
Post by: Karlos on April 21, 2004, 02:37:02 PM

I've got this mental picture of that face from Spitting Image, rendered in ice. several kilometers across, trailing nebulous debris in it's wake.

Be afraid...

Title: Re: Look to the East, before the dawn breaks...
Post by: KennyR on April 21, 2004, 03:36:55 PM

No point. It'll be cloudy anyway. It always is. :pissed:

Title: Re: Look to the East, before the dawn breaks...
Post by: blobrana on April 21, 2004, 07:12:06 PM

Hum,
i can see a break in the clouds from where i live...
see! (http://www.met-office.gov.uk/satpics/latest_ir.jpg)

And strangely, comet thatcher does make a U-turn...

[sry, british politics; like, where`s the beef...]

Title: Re: Look to the East, before the dawn breaks...
Post by: KennyR on April 22, 2004, 07:07:09 PM

I got a patch of clear sky and watched between 3am and 4am last night, from Casseiopea to Pegasus. I didn't see a single meteor.

Light pollution, maybe. Or maybe I was looking in the wrong place (Lyra was in the SE, not the east). Or maybe the shower wasn't as good as believed. ;-)

Title: Re: Look to the East, before the dawn breaks...
Post by: blobrana on April 22, 2004, 11:55:27 PM

Hum,
That was about the right time, as the earth is turning onto the stream...
but it looks like that it was particularly sparse at that time,
Perhaps tonight?

(did you see the cresent moon and venus this evening?)

Title: Re: Look to the East, before the dawn breaks...
Post by: KennyR on April 23, 2004, 12:48:54 AM

Well, I'll try to look again tonight/this morning, if it's not cloudy. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to see anything though, this place is lit up like a circus at night. I reckon I can only see stars above a magnitude of 3, which is maybe not enough to see a meteor.