Lyrids 2000

Observations of the 2000 Lyrids were hampered by a gibbous waning Moon, which rose before midnight shortly after the radiant of the Lyrids had reached altitudes above 30 degrees. Typically, the annual maximum of the Lyrids falls between solar longitudes 32.1 deg and 32.5 deg, corresponding to April 21, 22:10 UT to April 22, 05:40 UT this year.

The return of the Lyrid meteor shower in 2000 was normal, according to the present information. The amount of data available is far from conclusive. High ZHRs of roughly 15 to 20 were recorded all through the (UT) evening of April 21 and the whole morning of April 22.

[CSV unquoted sep=;] Date ; UT ; Sollong; nLYR ;nObs ; ZHR ; +/-; April 21 ; 02:00 ; 31.28 ; 3 ; 1 ; 5.4 ; 3.1; April 21 ; 20:00 ; 32.01 ; 55 ; 9 ; 17 ; 9; April 22 ; 01:20 ; 32.23 ; 31 ; 5 ; 12 ; 5; April 22 ; 08:30 ; 32.52 ; 16 ; 5 ; 20 ; 10 ; --> (remark: low LM for two indiv. values) April 22 ; 21:00 ; 33.02 ; 29 ; 11 ; 7.0 ; 5.0; April 22 ; 22:50 ; 33.10 ; 17 ; 6 ; 8.3 ; 3.7; [/CSV]

Solar longitudes refer to equinox J2000. ZHRs are based on a population index of r=2.9. Errors are standard deviations of the averages except for the first value based on a single observation where we give ZHR/sqrt(nLYR).

We would like to thank the following observers for their quick reports after the observation:

ARLRA Rainer Arlt (Germany), ATAJU Jure Atanackov (Slovenia), BUCAN Andreas Buchmann (Switzerland), DIAAS Asdai Diaz Rodriguez (Cuba), DUBAU Audrius Dubietis (Lithuania), ENZFR Frank Enzlein (Germany), HANIS Isabel Handel (Germany), KACJA Javor Kac (Slovenia), LINMI Mike Linnolt (USA), OSAKA Kazuhiro Osada (Japan), PETNA Natasa Petelin (Slovenia), RENJU Jurgen Rendtel (Germany), TRIJO Josep M. Trigo (Spain), WUSOL Oliver Wusk (Germany), YOUKI Kim Youmans (USA) and YRJIL Ilkka Yrjola (Finland).