hi..

i am not an astronomy freak, but i read that "Lyrid meteor shower" will peak on 21-22 April. DOes anyone know if it will be visible in Switzerland while we have a rare clear sky (well, so in Zurich at the moment)

does one need a nice telescope for that? does the universities provide events in their observatories for the public?

thanks,
fatih

It looks to be good late tonight

http://www.spaceweather.com/meteors/lyrids/lyrids.html

Every year in late April Earth passes through the dusty tail of Comet Thatcher (C/1861 G1), and the encounter causes a meteor shower--the Lyrids. This year the shower peaks on Thursday morning, April 22nd. The best time to look, no matter where you live, is during the dark hours before dawn. Forecasters expect 10 to 20 meteors per hour visible from dark-sky sites.
Lyrid meteors appear to stream from the bright star Vega in the constellation Lyra:

Great. This sounds like a blast. I'm heading out to a dark part of Baselland tonight, probably around 4am. Anyone want to come?

hmm, basel is a bit far from zurich for that time of the morning

but a question : does one need a telescope to see the meteor shower, or will it be visible with plain eyes?

hello, I'm no expert either, but I believe watching falling stars is easier without telescope, they move to fast.
Very nice are the perseids in august (preferably up in the alps in a mountain hut und so)
Best would be to go out of the city, but I have been told the moon could be a problem this year.?

YES! I'll need a lift from Zurich though, sorry man

Now who gave it a name like that?

so, did anyone see any meteors?

i believe i woke up around 3 am, and looked out the window to halfway between northeast and east; there were some bright stars, but nothing moving. it was cold, too, so i went back to bed )

hopefully, tonight i'll try again..

I tried to wake up around 3am too, but I wasn't succesfull

Sorry not really concerning the lyrids, but thanks to your thread I found that this saturday will be german, austrian and swiss "astronomy day", anyone interested see here http://www.astronomie.info/events/tagderastronomie.html

Urania Zürich will have "spezialführungen", guided tours starting at 5pm for kids http://www.urania-sternwarte.ch

Unfortunately it doesn't say anything about english tours for this day. I know that you can arrange private tours in english but they cost 500.- (max 40 people).

(sorry the linked pages are only available in german it seems)

I was also, unfortunately, unsuccessful. I stayed up until 3 and then lost all willpower. It was cold and in the city there were hardly any stars at all due to a bright moon.

The astronomy day/night sounds interesting though!

Hi,

You don't need a telescope for seeing the meteor shower, just need to be away from the lights, and check out the moon phase for that time. Here is a list of the most notorious meteor showers during the year, check for ZHR (Zenital Hourly Rate), the higher, the better.


http://www.imo.net/docs/cal2010.pdf

Cheers,

Christian

some recent meteor news :

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencete...nds-homes.html


amazing and scary...

a bit late for the peak, but: http://www.spacedex.com/quadrantids/

Clear night tonight, might take a peak. Cheers.

not a meteor shower, however nice sky event easily visible:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...space-science/

Anybody got a telescope which can track fast moving meteor's as they enter the atmosphere?

Hook up a top of the range radar system from Ratheon to a computer. Hook up the telescope with a slick motor driven system to the computer. There you have it. Just make sure you don't put your face too close to the eye piece of the telescope or you will be nursing a black eye.

Was there not the system used in the polar stations in the '50ties that would track a meteor and bounce a compressed radio signal of it?

Thanks, looked impressive.

apparently, it will favor the south hemisphere, but still wouldn't hurt to watch the heavens at night towards the end of this month:

http://meteorshowersonline.com/showe..._aquarids.html