Meteor Shower Visible From Long Beach?

If you are planning some weekend sky-gazing, Long Beach is worth a go if you just want to crawl out of bed, but experts like a Cal State Long Beach astronomy professor - and NASA - say the best shot is predawn and darkness.

Thus, you may want to follow the weather conditions locally tonight and Sunday night for clear versus clouded skies, according to Accuweather.com.

"The Lyrids," wrote CSULB Professor of Astronomy Paul Hintzen, "should peak the morning (3 a.m. until dawn) of April 22, as described here:

http://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/earthskys-meteor-shower-guide

"The Moon will be very bright earlier in the night, and the radiant of the shower will be rising in the Northeast anyway," Hintzen emailed Friday, "so earlier in the night there probably won't be many meteors, and they'll be hard to see in any case, especially in the LA Basin.

"However," he continued, "the Lyrids tend to be bright and they occasionally produce "meteor storms", so they're worth checking out if you can get up that early. A good site would be Joshua Tree National Park. If you don't want to drive that far, pick the darkest fog-free spot you can find."

Meanwhile, how cool is this? NASA reports on its website:

"This weekend, NASA scientists, amateur astronomers, and an astronaut on board the International Space Station will attempt the first-ever 3D photography of meteors from Earth and space.

"The annual Lyrid meteor shower peaks on April 21-22," says Bill Cooke, the head of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office. "We’re going to try to photograph some of these 'shooting stars' simultaneously from ground stations, from a research balloon in the stratosphere, and from the space station."

Watch this NASA YouTube for the meteor showers story.