Your Guide to Catching the Lyrid Meteor Shower Tonight

The Lyrid meteor shower will peak on the evening of April 22nd and early morning of April 23rd, but it can be observed anytime from April 16th to 25th. New Scientist‘s expert stargazers share insights on what to watch for. Listen to the audio below or find it in the podcast episode feed: The World, the Universe, and Us.

Meteors form when high-velocity debris from space collides with Earth’s atmosphere. These minuscule particles ignite due to the friction with air, creating brilliant flashes across the night sky.

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As Earth makes its annual journey around the sun, it intersects clouds of dust and debris left by comets and asteroids, boosting the number of meteors sighted. This cyclical pattern is what allows meteor showers to recur at similar times each year.

The Lyrid meteor shower is attributed to the long-period comet C/1861 G1, also known as Thatcher. Discovered in 1861, Thatcher completes its orbit every 415 years and is expected to return to our solar system around 2278.

To observe a meteor shower, you don’t need to focus on a specific area of the sky. Each meteor is named after the constellation from which it appears to radiate—in this case, the constellation Lyra, located in the Northern Hemisphere and home to the bright star Vega.

If you’re situated in the Northern Hemisphere, keep an eye out for the constellation Lyra. Although not visible from the Southern Hemisphere, meteors can shoot across the sky in any direction, so facing east may yield sightings of shooting stars.

Lyra will be visible in the east shortly after sunset in the Northern Hemisphere. For optimal meteor viewing, it’s best to keep an eye on the sky as it starts to darken; however, the closer you get to dawn, the brighter the sky will become.

One effective way to locate Lyra is by identifying the Summer Triangle, a prominent asterism formed by three bright stars that appear overhead around midnight during the Northern Hemisphere’s summer. In late April, at midnight, these stars will rise near the eastern horizon, with Vega being the highest and located within Lyra.

Regardless of the sky’s clarity, you could catch sight of 10 to 18 meteors per hour during the Lyrid meteor shower.