The Lyrids - or my first meteor shower

This was my first meteor shower and to be fair I hadn't done much research, I'd just decided to go in the back garden and 'have a look'. It was cold outside, so I made sure I had plenty of layers on and took a chair outside. The Lyrids are called so because they appear to come from an area near the constellation Lyra in the North West of the night sky. Lyra is famous for its inclusion of Vega, which any viewer of the Jodie Foster movie, Contact, will know of. It's the place, in the film, that we visit to meet another form of life.

I was annoyed at first because there was a street light that was obscuring my view of the North - North West sky, but I persevered - knowing that in good years the Lyrid meteor shower can dazzles watchers with over 100 meteors an hour. I also liked the thought that I'd be taking part in a tradition us humans have been partaing in for the past 2600 years. Luckily Squiggle, one of our rabbits, decided it was time to start thumping on the foot of his hutch - something that rabbits often do. I went to go talk to him and found that he was letting me know that in his part of the patio all street lights were out of view! Thank you Squiggle!

So I moved my chair and got comfortable. I waited around 15 minutes, not really expecting much as the 'show' wasn't due to begin until around 5am GMT. But then I saw one at 12:35am and decided that I'd try to wait until I'd seen three - that three would be the magic number for my first meteor shower! The second came a few minutes later at 12:39 followed by three and four at 12:41. Number four was amazing. It lasted longer and was much brighter than the three before it. It made me sit a little deeper into my chair, so feel a bit closer to earth. It was amazing!

I waited another seven minutes, intermittently looking through my binoculars trying to focus on passing aircraft and satellites and nearly missed the fifth and unfortunately the last that I saw that night. I waited another 12 minutes before decided that I needed to get back inside to warm up. I was very lucky to see five in such a small amount of time and because there was no moonlight to obscure the view.


If you have the opportunity and the interest, based on this first experience, meteor showers are definitely worth getting up for!

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