Lyrid Meteor Shower is visible this weekend

[Jstas]

http://skytonight.com/observing/objects/meteors/3305866.html

This is typically one of the less active showers we can see here in North America. However, at various times during the 2,000 year recorded history of this shower, there have been several times where there have been more than 100 meteors in the sky per hour. Since it's so sporadic in activity, it's always a good shower to watch because you never know when it will come down like rain!

The best viewing times are after 2:00 AM Sunday morning until dawn and after 2:00 AM on Monday morning until dawn. The shower will be going all weekend long but the position and brightness of the moon at this time of year makes it difficult to see the fainter streaks.

I'll likely be up after 2:00 AM and it'll still be Saturday and if you are too, don't forget to look up. You just might see something cool! By the way, as usual, the farther away from heavily lit areas and populated areas, the better your viewing will be.

[jakelm]

Cool.. My 2 boys and I try to keep up with "space" accurences as much as possible. This was a weekend we are waiting for. Hopefully the sky will be clear. I might to take some night photos, if like you said, the moon wont be to bright.

[michael_w]

They're calling for a cloudy weekend here, but hopefully one of the nights will be clear. I'll definitely be out there with my camera if things go well.

Thanks for reminding us!

[MacLeod]

Very cool! I would like to see this. Hopefully itll stay clear tonight.

[daboyz]

Just saw one tonight on my way home, first one I've seen in years.

[Fireman32]

Going to be a nice clear weekend. Will stay up to watch it.

[michael_w]

Just because I was curious, I stood outside and watched for a bit last night. Only actually saw one and realized it's going to be very hard to photograph. Living in the city makes it them pretty dim (or everything else really bright in comparison). Looking forward to tonight and tomorrow.

[ViperZ]

Will be driving in the middle of nowhere - between Austin and Houston - tomorrow night. Definitely will stop and watch!!! Thanks!

Too bad I don't have a tripod here to make some photos :(

[Jstas]

So did anyone get a better show than one or two?

I went down to a state park at like 2 am on Saturday night where there is a good view. I was there for about 20 minutes and saw a couple. Then a state park ranger pulled up and asked me what I was doing. So I told him about the meteor shower. He said he had heard something because some people were out the night before. Then we both looked up and I said, "It's a nice, clear night, I was hoping for a bit more of a show." Then he said "Yeah, last year, that Leonid one, that was pretty active." Then he started telling me that I couldn't hang around and just as I was getting ready to leave and lamenting the fact that the show was lackluster at best, there was about 6 bright flashes across the sky and one of those flashes broke up into about 4 more smaller flashes. We both remarked that it was pretty cool and I told him to have a good night and he said to drive safe and I drove off quite happy that I didn't get slammed with a $600 trespassing fine for being in a state park after dark without a permit.

[jakelm]

Clouds covered my sky this weekend...Big dissapointment. The beer was cold though..:D

[Fireman32]

Will try to get outside tonight and see if I can see any. Wasn't able to get away form my desk last night.

[michael_w]

It was pretty lame here too. Only actually saw a couple but I'm glad I've seen it in the country years ago so I can still appreciate it. Photos didn't work very well probably because it's really bright in both my backyard and the city (and that I have no idea what I'm doing).

This one was exposed for 1246.6 seconds (20 mins) at f9.5 / 200iso.
http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/9553/smallskynu1.th.jpg (http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/9553/smallskynu1.jpg)

I just couldn't find a happy medium between a long enough exposure to possibly catch some movement and keeping it properly exposed yet still showing at least a little bit of detail with the very dim stars. Nice couple hunks of dust on my cameras sensor too :mad:

Here's another. 30 seconds... not showing any motion at all. The moon glaring like the sun it's reflecting.

http://img261.imageshack.us/img261/5272/sky2smallnv6.th.jpg (http://img261.imageshack.us/img261/5272/sky2smallnv6.jpg)