Overview
- Activity builds to a peak Tuesday night into early Wednesday, with the best viewing in the pre-dawn hours after the moon has set.
- NASA expects roughly 10 to 20 meteors per hour in dark skies, though brief outbursts are possible and cannot be predicted.
- Viewers in the Northern Hemisphere have the best vantage, and the shower can still be seen worldwide from locations far from city lights.
- Your odds improve after midnight by letting your eyes adjust for 15 to 30 minutes and by looking slightly away from the radiant near Vega in Lyra.
- The Lyrids come from dust left by Comet Thatcher, which swings by the Sun about every 415 years, and records of the shower date back more than 2,500 years.