The Lyrid meteor shower is expected to be at its best in the wee hours after midnight and before dawn on Saturday, April 21, and Sunday, April 22. That’s tonight and tomorrow night between midnight and dawn. How convenient that the 2012 Lyrid shower scheduled itself to take place at new moon and during the weekend! We’re guaranteed moonless skies for this year’s Lyrid meteor shower.
No matter where you live worldwide, it’s likely the most Lyrid meteors will fly during the dark hour before dawn. That’s when the radiant point of the shower will be highest in the sky. Tomorrow and Sunday morning, find a place away from artificial lights and recline comfortably while looking in all parts of the sky.
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The Lyrids are usually a modest shower, featuring 10 to 20 meteors per hour. About one quarter of these swift Lyrid meteors exhibit persistent trains – ionized gas trails that glow for a few seconds after the meteor has passed. The Lyrids aren’t an altogether predictable shower, though, and in rare instances can bombard the sky with up to nearly 100 meteors per hour.
Lyrid meteors appear to radiate from the constellation Lyra, near the star Vega. But the meteors burn up in the atmosphere about 100 kilometers – or 60 miles – up. Vega lies trillions of times farther away at 25 light-years.
The best viewing for the Lyrid shower will be about 3 am until dawn on Saturday and Sunday mornings – tonight and tomorrow night – the mornings of April 21 and 22. Go someplace where it’s really dark (no city lights). Just lie back comfortably and gaze in all parts of the sky.
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