A brilliant beacon. A small harp. April’s returning meteors.
- LOOK FOR
- Vega · Sheliak
- A SKY STORY
- In Greek mythology, Lyra is the instrument played by Orpheus.
Vega leads the eye to a compact pattern of fainter stars. - THE PATTERN
- A small lyre
The illustration follows a classical Western sky tradition. Other cultures have different names, figures and stories.
- METEOR SHOWER
- Lyrids 006 LYR
- ORIGIN
- C/1861 G1 (Thatcher)
- SEASON
- AprilLate April; check a current calendar for the year.
Comet Thatcher supplies the debris behind this annual spring shower.
The radiant is a perspective direction, not the physical source of the meteors. Animation densities are illustrative, not predicted local counts.
The four animation stages compare illustrative activity. They are not measured rates or this year’s forecast.
- REFERENCE SKY
- Hong Kong23 April 2026 · 02:00 HKT
- Lyrids radiant · J2000
- RA 272.36° · Dec +33.31°
- Vega · J2000
- RA 18h 36m 56sDec +38° 47′ 01″
One J2000 catalogue solution. The radiant drifts during the season; this illustration does not model that drift.
Choose Horizon for a level view with true directions and an adjustable reference time. Art keeps the composed view. The scenery is imagined; neither mode is a live local sky.
A constellation is an area of sky, not one coordinate.
About this sky & sources +
Catalogue stars and traditional line patterns share one celestial projection. Terrain and mythological figures are original artistic interpretations.
Art preserves the composed scene. Horizon uses the labelled reference location and time and true cardinal directions, with a level mathematical horizon. Its continuous illustrated panorama is an imagined setting, not surveyed terrain.
Catalogue coordinates use J2000 and are precessed to the scene date. Weather, moonlight, terrain obstruction and atmospheric refraction are not modelled. This is a learning view, not an observing forecast.
Artwork: original generated illustrations for KamCosmos, including reused locally produced figure layers. Star catalogue and linework: d3-celestial; BSD notice retained in this page.
