How to spot the Lyrid meteor shower: New Scientist's stargazing companion

0:02Abby Beall:Welcome to a special episode of The World, The Universe and Us. This is for those who want a guide to the lyrid meteor shower. So pop your headphones on and listen along with our resident astronomer, Abby Beall. Welcome to this episode of New Scientist's Stargazing Companion. My name's Abby and tonight I'm going to be joining you to look for some meteors. First things first, how's the weather? If it's cloudy or rainy it might be best to stay warm and dry and try this another time. We're looking for the Lyraids which hit their peak on the evening of the 21st of April or the early hours of the 22nd but you can look for them anytime between the 16th and the 25th.

0:44The best time to look is after midnight but you can try as soon as it gets dark. And do you have somewhere in mind to watch the meteor shower? Anywhere outside where you feel safe will do but if you can avoid light pollution as much as possible that would be great. I like to set up a deck chair in my back garden with a comfy neck pillow and a hot water bottle. Now I'll let you go and sort that out. Right let's get our shoes on and our coat and head out the door. You won't need any other equipment like a pair of binoculars or a telescope to see the meteor shower but make sure you have enough layers to keep yourself warm.

1:22If you have a picnic blanket you might like to lie on the ground. I hope you've got yourself comfortable. The next thing to do is just look up at the sky. You can expect to see meteors flying across the sky from any direction but it might be easier once your eyes adjust to the darkness. While they do that let me tell you what a meteor shower actually is. Meteor showers are caused by clouds of debris left in the wake of comets. When earth passes through these clouds on its path around the sun, the tiny grains of dust or rock enter the atmosphere at such high speeds that the friction between them and the air makes them burn up.

2:01They are moving so fast when they hit our atmosphere that the air in front of them can't get out of the way fast enough. Instead, it gets rapidly squashed and heated up. This causes the surface of the meteor to reach temperatures as high as 1 ,600 degrees Celsius or almost 3 ,000 degrees Fahrenheit, glowing brightly, which produces a flash that moves across the sky really quickly. Some people confuse them with satellites, of which there are many in the sky nowadays. But you'll know it's a meteor because it moves very fast, gone in a second or less, whereas a satellite will move much, much more slowly and stay visible for one to five minutes.

2:42Occasionally, bigger pieces of space rock will hit our atmosphere, causing a long tail called a fireball that you can see for a few seconds. And if any pieces of this rock make it to the ground, they are called meteorites. Back to meteor showers. As Earth makes its yearly journey around the Sun, it passes through a series of clouds of dust and debris left behind by comets or asteroids. This is why the same meteor showers happen at similar times each year. The Lyorids is closed by the long-period comet C-1861G1, also known as Thatcher. Discovered in 1861, Thatcher takes 415 years to orbit the Sun.

3:25It's expected to return to our part of the solar system around the year 2278. Now, I hope your eyes have adjusted. as I mentioned, we don't need to look in any particular part of the sky to see a meteor shower. But each one is named after the bit of the sky where the meteors seem to start or radiate from. In this case, it's the northern hemisphere constellation Lyra, which contains the bright star Vega. If you're in the northern hemisphere, you can look for the constellation Lyra. It won't be visible from the southern hemisphere, but meteors can travel in all directions, so some shooting stars might still be visible if you look east.

4:07From the northern hemisphere, Lyra will be in the east just after sunset. If you're looking a little later, it will be higher up in the sky, making it a better time to look for meteors. Although the closer you get to sunrise, the brighter the sky will be. The easiest way to find Lyra is to look for a pattern of stars known as the Summer Triangle. so named because it's made up of three bright stars in a triangle shape and in summer in the northern hemisphere it appears directly overhead around midnight. In late April at midnight the three bright stars will appear near the horizon. The highest of these is Vega and this is in the constellation Lyra.

4:49Okay now you've found where to look lie back and relax and just watch the sky. Have you seen any meteors yet? On a night with a clear sky, even with no meteor shower, you can expect to see roughly one every hour. Tonight, if you've hit the peak and you have clear and dark skies, you can see between 10 and 18 in one hour. I'm going to let you go and enjoy the skies in peace now, but do have a look around while you're waiting for meteors. See whether you can spot any patterns in the stars. If you have a good view of the horizon, look to the west and you might see Jupiter next to a thin sliver of the waxing moon, as well as the bright stars, Procyon and Betelgeuse.

5:30Until next time, happy stargazing.