How to catch the Lyrid meteor shower expected to peak this week

We had a chance to see the northern lights aurora borealis this past week What you may not know is that the April geomagnetic storm that was causing the aurora was also sending powerful electrical currents into the ground around the D C region Related stories Gayle King and Blue Origin crew return from space NASA s Lucy spacecraft is speeding toward another close encounter with an asteroid Head of US Space Force base in Greenland is fired after Vance visit Now we can gear up for another sky show The April Lyrids meteor shower will continue through April but peaks on the night of April From a dark sky site with no moon one can expect about a dozen meteors per hour Several years the shower has produced outbursts of up to meteors per hour Where do these meteors come from Each year in late April our planet encounters a debris stream of cometary dust made by C G also known as Thatcher As Earth orbits around the sun it collides with this debris stream and the cometary debris particles which can be as small as a grain of sand hit our atmosphere at miles per second miles per hour heating the atmosphere white hot and giving off the appearance of what we call shooting stars or falling stars You do not need any equipment or know-how to enjoy the show Just find a place to put a lounge chair or blanket to see the sky Starting at p m in the northeast the constellation for which this meteor shower is named Lyra hangs low above the horizon and will rise higher as the night progresses Sporadic meteors that are not part of the shower can be seen during the night as well The shower should peak after midnight Lyrids can appear anywhere in the sky but looking straight up gives you the widest viewing area this is where the lounge chair or blanket come in handy The moon will interfere a bit with viewing the shower just before dawn If you are a city-dweller you may still be able to see the brightest Lyrids as long as you are not staring into a streetlight or nestled in among tall buildings The view of the Lyrids is still worth it from the suburbs as long as lights and obstructions are minimized as best you can If you re up before dawn and the clouds aren t obscuring it you may be able to catch a glimpse of Venus in the east There is still a lot happening in the sky as we wind down April so check out Greg Redfern s space forecast for the rest of the month And follow him on Facebook Bluesky and his daily blog to keep up with the latest news in astronomy and space exploration Source