What to know about the Lyrid meteor shower in New Mexico
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Space Science Director Jim Greenhouse says the name of any meteor shower comes from the constellation the stars seem to be falling away from — in this case, Lyra. He tells us comets are basically 'dirty snowballs in space,' and whenever they move, they leave behind ice and dust. When those pieces of ice and dust start getting pulled toward Earth, they burn up in the Earth's atmosphere, and that's when we see streaks of light.
With the Lyrids in particular, there's a relatively short window of 'peak' viewing time, although you can theoretically see them from April 15 to 29.
'The evening of April 21 into the morning of April 22 is probably the best time to watch,' Greenhouse says. 'Try to see it before dawn. So if you get up on the morning of April 22, that's supposed to be the best time for it. This particular shower has a kind of a dense core, and then the debris thins out as you head away from that core.'
This year, the Moon will be quite small during the peak viewing hours. Without much illumination from the Moon, it'll be easier to see faint falling stars that could otherwise be drowned out by moonlight. Greenhouse says you'll still need patience, though, as you may only get 10 to 15 falling stars per hour. He tells us you'll need to watch the sky for at least an hour to see anything.
As for the best places to view the shower, the idea is to get as far away from city lights as possible. Greenhouse says 'any direction away from Albuquerque,' and somewhere 'as flat as possible.' And of course, it all depends on the weather — cloudy nights will provide little visibility for the shower.
If you're not having much luck with the Lyrid showers, there's something else to watch out for next week. Early Thursday morning, there will be a planetary conjunction where Saturn, Venus and Uranus will all be in line with each other. Greenhouse recommends going east of the mountains if you want to see it, as it's going to be pretty low in the sky.
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