This April meteor shower will reach its peak this week — and the moon is cooperating.
The Lyrid meteor shower can produce up to 20 meteors an hour. Credit: Greg Ellis
This week, Astronomy Magazine editor emeritus Dave Eichler invites you to go outside to see the Lyrid meteors, which peak around April 23. With the moon mostly out of the way this year, you may see more than 20 meteors per hour. May you be successful!
Video Transcript:
Welcome to this week in astronomy, brought to you by Celestron, the world’s leading manufacturer of telescopes. I’m Dave Eichner, editor emeritus Astronomy magazine.
You know, some of the funniest events that happen under our skies come with a good meteor shower, on a nice night, never knowing what to expect, keeping an eye on the streaks that appear in the sky. It’s really fun and it’s exciting. Well, we have a nice meteor shower this month with our greatest activity occurring from April 15 to April 29 and really peaking around April 23.
This is the April Lyrid meteor shower, so named because the meteorites appear to originate from the constellation Lyra. Simply go under a dark sky to see a meteor shower – any meteor shower – and look straight up to see most meteor showers. You do not need any kind of optical aid. Due to the new moon being on the 16th this year, the moon is out of the way of this rainfall.
You can see about 20 meteors per hour in this shower, and the best time to view is between midnight and 4 a.m., when Earth’s leading edge turns into the incoming meteor stream. The source of this shower is comet 1861 G1 (Thatcher). So go out there under a dark sky. I hope your sky remains clear. Take a look at the April Lyrid meteor shower. We’re all going to have a lot of fun under the stars this spring. I will see you next time.
