Lyrid meteor shower peaks April 21 and 22
Featured image: Lyrid meteor shower. Credit: meteorshowers.org
The Lyrid meteor shower will peak on the night of April 21 and the morning of April 22. This is a medium strength shower that usually produces about 20 meteors per hour at its peak.
The Lyrids are one of the oldest known meteor showers, observed for at least 2 700 years.
They are known for their fast and bright meteors that frequently leave glowing dust trains, observable for several seconds.
These meteors are best viewed from the northern hemisphere during dark hours, after moonset and before dawn. People in the southern hemisphere can also see the shower but at a lower rate.
Lyrids originate from comet C/1861 G1 Thatcher, discovered on April 5, 1861 bt A. E. Thatcher.
The first quarter moon will set shortly after midnight this year, leaving dark skies for the what could be a good show. Meteors will radiate from the constellation Lyra but can appear anywhere in the sky.
Teo Blašković founded The Watchers in 2011 and edited it until 2026, covering seismic and volcanic activity, extreme weather, space weather and near-Earth objects. Articles on this page are his archive.
Earlier reporting
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