By Charles Joynson
A digital composite of 50 photographs taken over a period of 25 minutes of meteors and star trails during the Perseid meteor shower in 2017, and skygazers can look forward to catching the Lyrid meteor shower on Thursday. Picture: Danny Lawson/PA Wire Skygazers can look forward to catching the Lyrid meteor shower on Thursday evening, with up to 18 meteors per hour expected to light up the dawn skies. The celestial display is expected to peak at 1pm UK time on April 22, but astronomers say the best time to see it would be before sunrise or after sunset. Tania de Sales Marques, an astronomer at the Royal Observatory Greenwich, said: “Since the peak occurs during the day the best time to try to spot the shower will be before sunrise on the 22nd or after sunset.
Heading to the quieter regions of the Jurassic Coast would be one option
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Has lockdown had you looking up? Or perhaps you feel it’s been ages since you’ve seen the night sky. In the age of social distancing, there can be few better ways to contemplate and take stock than a staycation with the stars. Your problem is light pollution, which is causing stars to vanish and threatens Britain s coastal wildlife. But things are changing.
An All-Party Parliamentary Group for Dark Skies has been set up to help reduce unnecessary light by law (shielded, downward-pointing lighting fixtures using amber LED bulbs of 2,700K are the simple answer) while International Dark Sky Places are mushrooming.
A nationwide Star Count has revealed that half of Oxfordshire is suffering from severe light pollution and only four per cent of us are able to enjoy truly dark skies. CPRE, the countryside charity, asked people to count stars from their garden or window as part of its annual nationwide star count in February. Data was compared to 2020 to see whether lockdown had an impact and to be used for vital lobbying efforts for darker skies. Results showed that stars have been more visible during the pandemic because night-time light pollution has fallen with the closure of shops, restaurants and pubs.
August – Perseids
Peaking on the night between Thursday August 12 and Friday August 13, the Perseid meteor shower is made from pieces of space debris from the Swift-Tuttle comment, and is named after the Perseus constellation. At its peak, viewers could potentially spot 60 to 100 meteors in an hour if the sky is clear enough that night.
October – Draconids
The first of October’s two meteor shower displays, the Draconids are due to appear overhead between Wednesday Oct 6 and Sunday October 10, peaking between the 8th and 9th. Named after the Draco constellation, the Draconids occur when the Earth passes through debris dust created from the Giaconini-Zinner comet.