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4h ago

Lyrid Meteor Shower Peaks Tuesday Night With Dark Skies Expected

Viewers under northern skies could see about 10 to 20 meteors per hour under ideal conditions.

This long-exposure photograph taken on April 23, 2015 on Earth Day shows Lyrids meteors passing near the Milky Way in the clear night sky of Thanlyin, nearly 14 miles away from Yangon in Myanmar.
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Overview

  • The annual shower reaches its maximum Tuesday night into Wednesday morning for Northern Hemisphere viewers, with activity continuing through April 25.
  • A thin crescent moon sets early and leaves darker skies, which improves visibility in the prime hours after midnight through dawn.
  • Choose a dark, open spot and let your eyes adjust for 15–30 minutes, then scan broadly near the Lyra region in the northeast rather than staring at Vega.
  • NASA and observatories forecast roughly 10–20 meteors per hour under clear, dark skies, though rare outbursts have happened in past years and are not expected this time.
  • The meteors are fragments from Comet C/1861 G1 Thatcher, which returns about every 415 years, and the Lyrids rank among the oldest recorded meteor showers.