The Eta Lyrids meteor shower
Key facts
- Peak
- around 9–11 May
- Active
- about 3–14 May
- Rate at peak (ZHR)
- about 3
- Speed
- 43 km/s
- Radiant
- Lyra (near the star Eta Lyrae, close to the border with Cygnus)
- Parent body
- Comet C/1983 H1 (IRAS–Araki–Alcock)
Dates shift slightly from year to year. This year's peak is in the events calendar.
The Eta Lyrids are a faint May shower, but they come from a comet with a dramatic story: one of the closest comet passes to Earth in recorded history.
The parent comet. In late April and early May 1983 the comet was found independently by three discoverers: the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS), an orbiting telescope that saw it as a warm object; Genichi Araki, an amateur astronomer in Japan; and George Alcock, a retired teacher in Peterborough, England, who spotted it with binoculars through a window. On 11 May 1983 it passed Earth at about 4.7 million kilometres, roughly twelve times the distance of the Moon. No comet had come closer since 1770. Radar signals were bounced off its nucleus, which proved to be a few kilometres across.
The comet is a long-period comet, taking centuries to go round the Sun. Its orbit passes close to Earth's, so it was natural to search for a shower. Convincing evidence came only from the video camera networks of the 2000s, which recorded meteors in early May with orbits matching the comet. The shower now has its own place on the international list.
What to expect. Only about three meteors an hour under a dark sky, so this is a shower to log rather than to show a crowd. The meteors are of medium speed. They are easily confused with Eta Aquariids, which are active at the same time but come from the opposite side of the sky and are much faster.
Viewing. The radiant is close to Vega, one of the brightest stars of northern summer, and is high in the sky after midnight from the UK and other northern countries. The short May nights in northern Britain, with twilight lasting much of the night, make faint meteors harder to see. Southern observers see the radiant low in the north.
Viewing tips
- Find Vega, the brilliant blue-white star, and look nearby towards Cygnus.
- Watch after midnight, when Lyra is high in the east.
- Tell them apart from Eta Aquariids: those are faster and come from the south-east before dawn.
- Go somewhere truly dark, as these meteors are mostly faint.
- From northern Scotland, watch in the darkest hour around 1 to 2 am local time.
Read about the parent: Comet IRAS–Araki–Alcock, and the other comets behind meteor showers.