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The first shooting star rain shower of outpouring in the Northern Hemisphere , the Lyrids , will peak overnight on Monday , April 21 - 22 . This year , the annual meteoroid shower will peak in virtually moonless night sky , which should make for a great show .
accord to theAmerican Meteor Society , around 18 " shoot stars " per hour could be visible during the height of the shower bath . However , with the blossom go under to occur in daylight in North America and a waning moon rise as a crescent after midnight on April 21 , the honest time to look — if skies are clear — will be now after it gets dark . Here ’s everything you want to know abouthow to photograph a shooting star shower .
The Lyrids are because of junk left in the innersolar systemby Comet Thatcher ( C/1861 G1 ) . That name refer the yr the comet was discovered , according toNASA . In fact , it was discovered on its last sojourn to the inner solar system , in 1861 . Comet Thatcher orbits the sun every 422 Earth years , with its next visit due in 2283 .
Although Lyrids can occur anywhere in the night sky , they ’re name after the constellation Lyra , because that ’s where they appear to originate . astronomer call this the radiant point of a shooting star shower . Lyra , which contains the bright star Vega , can be fancy rising in the east as it gets dark .
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Active from April 16 - 25 , the Lyrid meteoroid shower can produce peculiarly lustrous " dash stars " have a go at it as ball of fire , which makes it one of the best meteor showers to snap . An promiscuous way tophotograph a meteor showeron a manual photographic camera is to set it on a tripod and take exposures of about 20 to 30 seconds , using a low f - number and an ISO of between 800 and3200 . ( ISO 1600 is a good start point . ) Then , set it to take guess after guesswork on its own . Hopefully , one of them will include a shooting " star , " which is actually the lighting bring out by a meteoroid as it burns up in Earth ’s atmosphere .
As the Lyrids wane , another shooting star shower will start . That one will be best picture from the Southern Hemisphere . alive from April 19 to May 28 , the Eta Aquarid meteor cascade is set to peak on May 4 - 5 . The Eta Aquarids come out to come from the constellation Aquarius , but the seed is actuallyHalley ’s Comet . During the rain shower ’s peak , about 60 shooting stars can be seen from the Southern Hemisphere , with the Northern Hemisphere typically experiencing about 30 per hour . Update : This clause was updated on April 17 with current information about the Lyrids .
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