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a wonderful night in april presented by

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science at nasa

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as winter turns to spring in the

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northern hemisphere the nights are

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becoming shorter and much cozier rising

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temperatures make shirt sleeve astronomy

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possible again

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if you must choose one night to spend

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under the beckoning stars this month

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make it april 21st

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it should be a wonderful night says bill

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cook of nasa's meteoroid environment

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office

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the annual lyrid meteor shower will peak

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under the dark skies of a new moon

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conditions should be ideal for meteor

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watching

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lyrid meteors come from comet thatcher

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every year in late april earth passes

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through a stream of debris from the old

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comet which has been bringing lyrid

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meteors to our planet for at least 2 600

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years

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specks of thatcher's dust hit the top of

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the atmosphere at 110 000 miles per hour

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and disintegrate in a slow flurry of

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meteors typical lyrids are about as

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bright as the stars of the big dippers

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says cook so they're good for beginners

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and it's not unusual to see one or two

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fireballs when the shower peaks

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most years the shower max is out at 15

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or 20 meteors per hour occasionally

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however rates increase sharply when

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earth glides through an unusually dense

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clump of debris

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in 1982 for instance astronomers counted

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as many as 90 lyrids per hour

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an even more impressive outburst was

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documented in 1803 by a journalist in

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virginia

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the outburst alarmed many and astonished

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every person that beheld it

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from one until three in the morning

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those starry meteors seem to fall from

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every point in the heavens in such

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numbers as to resemble a shower of

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skyrockets

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a good time to look for lyrids is during

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the hours after midnight when the

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shower's radiant is rising toward its

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zenith

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coincidentally this year's shower peaks

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during the same week that saturn is

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having a close encounter with earth

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if you begin your meteor watch around

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midnight you'll see the ringed planet

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shining almost directly overhead about

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two times brighter than a first

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magnitude star

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got a telescope now would be a great

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time to use it even small department

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store models at low magnification

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provide a nice view of saturn's rings

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nasa's cassini spacecraft is orbiting

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saturn now

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studying the planet's strange moons and

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snapping breathtaking photos of the ring

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plane

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no telescope on earth can match

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cassini's proximity to the ringed planet

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but many observers say the view from

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your own backyard is uniquely satisfying

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and there's more

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when you're finished looking at saturn

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you can turn your optics towards mars

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the red planet is also up at midnight on

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april 21st and it's even brighter than

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saturn

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backyard telescopes reveal a tiny burnt

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orange globe with a white cap of polar

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ice reflecting enough sunlight to see 81

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million miles away

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nasa's newest rover curiosity is enroute

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to mars now on a mission to hunt for

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signs of ancient life

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you can tell your friends you saw mars

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even before curiosity did

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april 21st has a lot to offer

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for more news about wonders in the night