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April's night sky will light up this weekend in Nashville as the year's first meteor shower will zoom by — beginning Saturday.

For peak viewing of the Lyrid meteor shower, gaze the stars on the nights of April 21-22.

More:The Lyrid meteor showers: A visual guide on where, when and how to view

The American Meteor Society describes the Lyrids as a "medium strength shower" that produces good rates of meteors for about three nights centered on the peak. NASA stated the meteors don't often leave long, glowing trains of dust as they streak through the night sky, but may produce bright flashes called fireballs.

So, roll out a blanket, maybe at Long Hunter State Park (2910 Hobson Pk., Nashville), Bledsoe Creek State Park (400 Zieglers Fort Rd., Gallatin) or Edgar Evins State Park (1630 Edgar Evins State Park Rd., Silver Point) if you're willing to travel to enjoy the beauty of nature.

John Cohen, a meteorologist with National Weather Service in Nashville, said onlookers should face Northeast in the sky and find a dark area.

Yeah, probably going to have to leave Nashville for that.

Cohen said east of Lebanon should do the trick as you look for an area to watch.

What is a meteor shower?

Meteors are pieces of space debris left over from comets and/or asteroids that interact with our atmosphere when Earth passes through the debris trails left from comets coming around the sun, according to NASA.

The debris that created the Lyrids come from Comet C/1861 G1, also known as Comet Thatcher.

When can I see the Lyrid meteor shower?

The Lyrids will be active from April 15-29.

NASA expects the shower to peak April 21-22. The peak of the meteor shower is when people can see the most meteors. Generally, about 10 to 20 meteors are visible when the Lyrids peak.

What time is best to see Lyrid?

On April 22, the peak night for the Lyrid meteor shower, optimal viewing is expected at 10:31 p.m. local time, according to the Farmer's almanac.

What is the duration of the Lyrid meteor shower?

The Lyrids can be observed until dawn, allowing plenty of time for observers to catch a glimpse, according to NASA.

Where is the best place to see the Lyrid meteor shower?

NASA recommends people watch the meteor shower in an area far from city lights or streetlights and prepare for comfortable viewing by bringing a sleeping bag, blanket or lawn chair.

They suggest people lie flat on their backs with their feet facing east, then look up and view as much of the sky as possible. After about 30 minutes in the dark, peoples' eyes will adapt and begin to see meteors.

Where in the night sky is the Lyrid meteor shower?

The Lyrids' radiant, or the point in the sky where a meteor shower appears to come from, is near the constellation Lyra, according to NASA. Meteors appear near the constellation's brightest star, Vega.

2023 Meteor shower schedule

Following Lyrid, the next meteor shower, Eta Aquarids, will peak around May 6-7.

Delta Aquarids, July 28-29 and Alpha Capricornids, July 30-31, will follow before the final summer shower, Perseids, Aug. 12-13.

Cohen said Perseid's shower in August will drop some jaws as it fills the sky.

Reach reporter Craig Shoup by email at cshoup@gannett.com and on Twitter @Craig_Shoup. To support his work, sign up for a digital subscription to www.tennessean.com.

The silver carp is more than a nuisance, it's a nemesis for state lake ecosystems and boaters. The state is hoping to learn how it moves to keep it from spreading.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Invasive carp continue to plague Tennessee waters, so state and federal wildlife authorities are taking the fight underwater to track how they move in hopes of finding ways to make it harder for them to spread elsewhere.

There are four species of invasive Asian carp state wildlife authorities are worried about: Silver Carp, Bighead Carp, Black Carp and Grass Carp.

Silver carp, in particular, are considered to be a real problem because of their large size and tendency to leap out of the water when startled. This poses the real potential for injury for boaters and anglers, and their feeding habits pose the danger of outcompeting other marine life to the point smaller fish die out.

To fight the fish, the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency is turning to underwater tracking implants. It recently went out on Pickwick and Cheatham lakes on the Cumberland River for three days with the U.S. Geological Survey to target silver carp and implant acoustic tags inside them.

A total of 125 carp were scooped up from each lake, and teams made quick work of them by stunning the fish, making a small incision, implanting an acoustic tag, and then sewing them up before releasing them downstream below the dams. The researchers want to see how the fish move upstream and up through dam locks to find ways to better stop their movements.

Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency

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A few years ago in 2019, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service installed a BioAcoustic Fish Fence on Barkley Dam in hopes it could be a game-changer in keeping the carp from passing through the dam lock.

The barrier uses a combination of sound, lights and bubbles to discourage the fish from entering Barkley Lock, and the TWRA said it is showing promise as a deterrent.

“Though no deterrent is expected to be 100 percent effective, even moderate levels of deterrence can significantly reduce the number of fish moving upstream through locks,” said Cole Harty, TWRA Aquatic Nuisance Species Coordinator. “Deterrents, when coupled with commercial harvest near the source of carp immigration, is the best strategy we have to prevent the spread of carp to waters upstream.”

While there are no widespread reports of invasive carp in East Tennessee waters yet, in 2020 the TWRA confirmed the presence of silver carp in Chickamauga Lake. An angler said the a carp jumped into their boat as he started his motor, saying he noticed 15 to 20 more near the surface showing feeding behavior.

The discovery means it might only a matter of time before the invasive carp are widespread in East Tennessee -- a fate the TWRA hopes to prevent given the popularity of fishing and boating in the area. The fish are already widespread in some West and Central Tennessee waterways.

Credit: TWRA

Commercial anglers participating in the Asian Carp Harvest Incentive Program have also been able to fish up more than 10 million pounds of invasive fish from the Kentucky and Barkley reservoirs.

“Commercial harvest is a key strategy to defend our waters from the impacts and expansion of invasive carp,” Harty said. “The other key strategy to prevent the spread of carp to waters upstream is deterrents.”

In the meantime, the TWRA is asking anglers and boaters to be vigilant and to help them track the invasive fish. If you spot silver carp in East Tennessee, the TWRA asks that you report it to ans.twra@tn.gov. with a photo in your report, and freeze the fish if possible.

With Governor Bill Lee’s (R) signature on Friday, Tennessee has officially become the 42nd state in the United States to remove sales taxes from constitutional sound money (i.e., gold and silver).

Tennessee’s House Bill 1874 and Senate Bill 1857, introduced by Representative Bud Hulsey (R-2) and Senator Frank Niceley (R-8) passed both chambers of the Tennessee legislature overwhelmingly last month and took effect immediately upon the Governor’s signature at the start of Memorial Day weekend.

Substantial grassroots support tipped the balance. During the Senate floor vote, Senator Janice Bowling (R-16) commented, “I’d just want to thank the senator for bringing forward this bill along with half of the state of Tennessee that contacted all of us!”

The victory puts a capstone on long-running efforts by the Sound Money Defense League, Money Metals Exchange, Campaign for Liberty, and grassroots activists and coin dealers in Tennessee. Tennessee investors, savers, and small businesses can now acquire gold, silver, platinum, and palladium bullion and coins without being slapped with taxes as high as 10%, depending on the purchaser’s specific location.

Lead sponsor Hulsey said, “I’ve been working to free gold and silver from sales taxes in Tennessee since my kids were in elementary school. The Sound Money Defense League, in-state dealers, and folks all across Tennessee made their voices heard and helped get this bill across the finish line.”

Meanwhile, similar bills have recently been under consideration in Kentucky, Mississippi, Hawaii, Maine, Wisconsin, and New Jersey, as the nation’s inflation problem expands and as the national backlash against taxing constitutional money expands.

Including Tennessee, 42 U.S. states now fully or partially exempt gold and silver from sales taxes. That leaves just eight states and the District of Columbia as the primary jurisdictions that still harshly penalize citizens seeking to protect their savings against the serial devaluation of the Federal Reserve Note.

States have been removing sales taxes from monetary metals for the following reasons:

*** Taxing precious metals is unfair to certain savers and investors. Gold and silver are held as forms of savings and investment. States do not tax the purchase of stocks, bonds, ETFs, currencies, and other financial instruments, so it makes no sense to tax monetary metals.

*** Levying sales taxes on precious metals is illogical because gold and silver are inherently held for resale. Sales taxes are typically levied on final consumer goods. Precious metals are inherently held for resale, not “consumption,” making the application of sales taxes on precious metals illogical and especially inappropriate.

*** Taxing gold and silver harms in-state businesses. It’s a competitive marketplace, so buyers in states with precious metals sales taxes often take their business to neighboring states that have eliminated or reduced sales tax on precious metals. Investors can easily avoid paying $136.50 in sales taxes, for example, on a $1,950 purchase of a one-ounce gold bar. Therefore, levying a sales tax on precious metals harms in-state businesses, which lose business to out-of-state precious metals dealers. Coin conventions also tend to avoid states with such sales tax.

*** Taxing precious metals is harmful to citizens attempting to protect their assets. Purchasers of precious metals aren’t fat-cat investors. Most who buy precious metals do so in small increments as a way of saving money. Precious metals investors are purchasing precious metals as a way to preserve their wealth against the damages of inflation. Inflation harms the poorest among us—including pensioners, Tennesseans on fixed incomes, wage-earners, savers, and more.

Jp Cortez, policy director for the Sound Money Defense League, explained in his testimony in support of HB 1874 that “the vast majority of states realize that taxing sound money harms in-state investors, in-state businesses, and even state revenues.”

Cortez continued:

“At a time of record-high inflation, Tennessee shouldn’t be punishing citizens with sales taxes for choosing to protect the purchasing power of their savings with sound money.”

Having eliminated sales taxes on the monetary metals, Tennessee will rise from 36th in the Sound Money Index to 9th place among the 50 states.

* * *

The Sound Money Defense League is a non-partisan, national public policy group working to restore sound money at the state and federal level and publisher of the Sound Money Index.

Money Metals Exchange is a national precious metals investment company and news service with more than 500,000 readers and 350,000 customers. It also operates Money Metals Depository for vaulting of gold and silver, and Money Metals Capital Group, a collateral lending institution.

The upcoming July 7 – 9 Hong Kong Signature Auction from Heritage Auctions features an astounding conditional survivor: a Kuang-hsü Dollar ND (1908) graded MS67 by PCGS.

This is a coin for which, quite frankly, all metrics of comparison totally fall by the wayside.

If not for its mottled halo of peripheral toning, spanning from indigo at the rims to a rich caramel as it moves inwards, one would be forgiven for thinking that the offering was just minted yesterday. Every inch of the fields is fully satin, allowing wave after wave of brilliant, fresh luster to weave around the planchet like the hands of a clock, unencumbered. Die polish, while characteristically fine as is the trademark of high-end machine-made Chinese coinage, finds every occasion to decorate the surfaces, though it does so subtly without strutting prominently across its velveteen canvass.

Even without going into specifics, it is obvious for all to see that this selection is the undisputed finest known within the graded population, though we would mention that no other exceeds MS65 at either NGC or PCGS – out of nearly 5,800 yet seen by both companies. This coin is of paramount conditional rarity in this status, and surely the representative that all collectors will seek to make the display example of the type in their collections for years to come.

Perhaps the best-known Chinese Dragon Dollar from the Kuang-hsü (Guangxu) Emperor’s reign, this short-lived issue—produced for only a single year—relates to a perennial problem of the late Empire: how to reconcile a diverse provincial coinage into a single, unified national standard. Indeed, the problem would continue to plague the nation’s rulers from Hsüan-t’ung (Pu Yi) to Yuan Shih-kai.

Following the reestablishment of the Tientsin Mint in 1906 after its destruction during the Boxer Rebellion in 1900, the Qing dynastic government attempted to introduce a new standard to replace the then-standard monetary system of Mace-Candareens (tied to the inherently western Dollars-Cents) with a Tael system, striking a series of four coins including the Tael, the 5 Mace, the 2 Mace, and the Mace (the so-called “Chung” Tael standard). Ultimately, due to provincial dissent, these issues were revoked, only to be replaced by another series of four coins—this time the Dollar, the 50 Cents, the 20 Cents, and the 10 Cents–which similarly failed due to the death of the emperor in 1908. This series, however, left its mark with its instantly recognizable Tai-Ching-Ti-Kuo (“The Great Qing Empire”) design, which proliferated on late Imperial copper coinage.

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Posted at 7:37 AM, Feb 16, 2021

and last updated 9:03 PM, Feb 16, 2021

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Power outages are still an issue for thousands across Middle Tennessee after a winter storm brought snow, freezing rain and sleet to the area. The Upper Cumberland Electric Membership Corporation has urged its customers to prepare for "an extended outage situation."

Areas east of Interstate 65 saw more freezing rain than snow with this system and that has caused downed power lines and trees.

On Tuesday evening the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency said about 20,000 customers across the state are without power and it may take one to three days before it is restored.

TEMA said the following counties reported outages:

As of Tuesday evening, UCEMC officials said about 15% of Upper Cumberland EMC’s 51,000 members remain without power. They said restoration is slowed by the sheer number of fallen trees downing power lines, blocking access roads, and impeding pole installation until special equipment clears a path for line workers.

Additional damage assessments from UCEMC district managers have pushed the restoration time frames forward. With the current weather situation, UCEMC said even members with restored power may later experience other outages.

“These weather conditions and additional damage assessments from UCEMC district managers are pushing the restoration timeframes forward,” UCEMC GM/CEO Jennifer Brogdon said in a press release. “With even more inclement weather systems moving in, those members with restored power now may later experience another outage. We’re asking our members to prepare for an extended outage situation.”

According to UCEMC, crews from Tri-County, Ft. Loudon, Blue Ridge EMC, and Appalachia are helping in the restoration effort.

They said in some areas, power restoration is being hindered by the "sheer number of fallen trees over power lines, blocking access roads, impeding pole installation and line replacement until other diggers, bucket trucks, and crews are brought in from contractors to clear the way for continued repairs today."

The following warming shelters are open:

According to UCEMC, areas still reporting outages include:

Livingston:

The Monroe substation is back on, but 800-1000 are still reporting outages.

In the Carthage area, 600 members are out:

Cookeville, 10-11,000 report outages:

Priorities due to population:

Approximately 1,300 total members out.

Total Outages: 13,700

UCEMC members calling to report outages at 1-800-261-2940 may experience delays due to the high number of calls. Members can also report outages within the districts section of ucemc.com or Messenger on the official UCEMC Facebook page.

Duck River Electric is reporting thousands of outages across Bedford, Coffee, and Marshall counties. At one point Tuesday morning, that number was at 35,000.

In the Metro Nashville area, power outages have been spotty. Nashville Electric Service said it’s fully staffed to respond to any outages and also has crews on standby if more help is needed. Additionally, NES said crews came in over the weekend to prepare bucket trucks with extra equipment for the storm response.

If you experience a power outage, report it through NESPower.com or by calling 615-234-0000 or by texting “OUT” to 637797 (NESPWR) if you’ve enabled the texting function on your account.

Residents are urged to charge their phones/other devices and have an emergency kit -- containing non-perishable food, water, blankets and flashlights with fresh batteries -- ready.

Copyright 2021 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (March 14, 2019) – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Nashville District is assessing damage to recreation facilities at its 10 lakes in the Cumberland River Basin as high waters begin to recede.

Officials are working as conditions allow to determine impacts to public lands, including roadways, recreation areas, facilities and campsites to make sure they are safe ahead of the 2019 recreation season.

“What we would like to convey to the public is that the majority of recreation areas and campgrounds across the district will open on schedule,” said Freddie Bell, Nashville District Natural Resources Management Section chief.

He said there are some impacts to recreation areas and campgrounds at Dale Hollow Lake, Center Hill Lake and Lake Cumberland, where some delays and partial closures may occur for repairs.

“Be mindful that we are not able to fully assess the damage in some locations until waters recede further,” Bell added. “We are doing everything possible to limit delays and avoid reservation cancellations at our campgrounds and are looking at alternatives for visitors.”

Center Hill Lake Corps officials at Center Hill Lake in Tennessee are assessing conditions as the lake recedes at its recreation areas, to include Long Branch Campground, Floating Mill Campground and Ragland Bottom Campground. Long Branch and Ragland Bottom Campgrounds are on schedule to open in April, though some campsite-specific closures may occur due to erosion around facilities.

Initial assessments at Floating Mill Campground reveal that the Corps may need to delay opening until at least June. Officials will post updates on the condition and availability of recreational facilities to the lake’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/centerhilllake.

Alternatives for visitors affected by reservation cancellations at Center Hill Lake include Edgar Evins State Park, Rock Island State Park, Center Hill Lake marinas, campgrounds at other Nashville District lakes, and other Kentucky and Tennessee state parks.

Dale Hollow Lake At Dale Hollow Lake, located in Tennessee and Kentucky, the staff is assessing conditions as the lake recedes at its recreation areas, to include Lillydale Campground and Obey River Campground. Initial assessments at Lillydale and Obey River Campgrounds project a delay in opening of up to 30 days. Willow Grove Campground and Dale Hollow Dam Campground should open as scheduled. A biking trail and fishing piers near Dale Hollow Dam Campground are still under water and have to be assessed when the water recedes. Lake-wide primitive camping locations are normally open all year, but are closed due to high water, most likely into April. Officials will post updates on the condition and availability of recreational facilities to the lake’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/dalehollowlake.

Alternatives for visitors affected by reservation cancellations at Dale Hollow Lake include Dale Hollow Lake State Park, Dale Hollow Lake marinas, campgrounds at other Nashville District lakes, and other Kentucky and Tennessee state parks.

Lake Cumberland At Lake Cumberland in Kentucky where the lake reached a record pool elevation of 756.52 feet on Feb. 26, Nashville District water managers continue to draw down the lake as Corps officials assess damage to recreation areas, to include campsites and boat ramps. Fall Creek Campground is opening on April 12. Cumberland Point Campground is also opening on April 12, 35 days earlier than originally scheduled to offset the unavailability of campsites at other areas on the lake.

Impacts at Fishing Creek Campground remain tentative as the lake continues to recede; however, we expect a delayed opening until mid-July. Below the dam at Kendall Campground, 11 campsites along the river are unavailable at this time due to erosion, but the campground will open on schedule. Corps officials are assessing conditions at Waitsboro Campground as the lake recedes, and the preliminary assessment has precipitated a partial seasonal closure most likely lasting into August. Officials will post updates on the condition and availability of recreational facilities to the lake’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/lakecumberland.

Alternatives for visitors affected by reservation cancellations at Lake Cumberland include Lake Cumberland State Park, Lake Cumberland marinas, campgrounds at other Nashville District lakes, and other Kentucky and Tennessee state parks.

Lake staffs are communicating with recreation.gov officials to notify guests with existing reservations of any campground and shelter cancellations. Visitors who are concerned about their campsite or shelter reservations should call the Recreation.gov direct line at 1-877-444-6777. They may also visit www.recreation.gov for information about their existing camping or shelter reservation or to check the availability of facilities. Customers with existing reservations for closed sites due to flooding will be given the option for a full refund or moving their reservation to another available site with no service charge.

News and information regarding flooding impacts to Nashville District recreation areas will be made available on the district’s website at www.lrn.usace.army.mil, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/nashvillecorps, and on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/nashvillecorps.