Lovely Lyrids

Robin Scagell Top stories
Lyrid meteor
Lyrid meteor (upper right) photographed by Paul Sutherland from Walmer. Kent on 22 April. The other trail, partly in cloud, is an aircraft.

SPA member Paul Sutherland took some excellent photos of April’s Lyrid meteor shower from his home in Walmer, Kent. His balcony overlooks the English Channel, and offers good skies despite an LED streetlight in full view! Here are some of his results, taken with a Fuji X-M1 camera equipped with a Samyang 12 mm lens. Exposure times were 20 seconds each shot at ISO 2000.

Lyrid meteor
Closeup of the meteor in the photo above, taken at 02:40 UT on 22 April.
Lyrid meteor
Photo taken at 02:12 on 23 April, with meteor in Lacerta
Lyrid meteor
Meteor photographed at 02:20 UT on 23 April, in Pegasus
Lyrid meteor
A Lyrid zooms through the Milky Way in Cygnus, at 02:33 on 23 April