The clear skies the whole country is seeing at the moment will bring stargazers out to catch a glimpse of the Lyrids, generally visible from April 16 to April 26, and peaking around April 21–23.

In fact, rather than staying up late, the best bet is to rise early in the morning, when the constellation Lyra has climbed higher in the southern skies.

As is the case with most meteor showers, the Lyrids originate from the dusty trail left by a comet, in this case C/1861 G1 (Thatcher), passing through the inner regions of our Solar System, and which Earth also traverses through.

Every 60 years, Earth passes through an especially dense part of the comet's dust cloud in its orbit, producing more spectacular meteor showers than usual, or even meteor storms.

For example, in the years 1803, 1922, and 1982, as many as 700 meteors per hour could be seen at the peak of the Lyrids, and while this year's Lyrids are unlikely to be as spectacular as that, a rate of around a dozen meteors per hour should still be observable.

First recorded by Chinese astronomers in 687 before the Common Era, as its name suggests, the radiant of the Lyrids — meaning the part of the sky from which they appear to emerge — is located in the constellation Lyra (i.e. lyre, or harp). This constellation can be recognized by its brightest star, Vega, which rises higher in the eastern sky late in the evening.

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