If you step outside tonight, you might catch the sky doing something simple but surprisingly beautiful—thin streaks of light you didn’t notice ten minutes earlier.
The Lyrid meteor shower hits its peak on the evening of 22 April, or early hours of the 23rd, but you can look for them any time between the 16th and 25th. The basic reason is straightforward: meteors are caused by high-speed debris from space hitting Earth’s atmosphere. These tiny grains of dust or rock enter the atmosphere at such speeds that the friction between them and the air makes them burn up, producing a flash that moves across the sky.
As Earth makes its yearly journey around the sun, it passes through a series of clouds of dust and debris, left behind by comets or asteroids, causing an increase in the number of meteors we see. This is why the same meteor showers happen at similar times each year. For the Lyrids specifically, the cause is the long-period comet C/1861 G1, also known as Thatcher. Discovered in 1861, Thatcher takes 415 years to orbit the sun. It is expected to return to our part of the solar system around the year 2278. (So yes, there’s a lot of patience built into this hobby.)
You don’t need to look in one part of the sky to see a meteor shower. But each one is named after the bit of the sky where the meteors seem to start, or radiate from. In this case, it is the northern hemisphere constellation Lyra, which contains the bright star Vega. If you’re in the northern hemisphere, you can look for the constellation Lyra. The constellation won’t be visible from the southern hemisphere, but meteors can travel in all directions, so some shooting stars might be visible if you look east.
Timing matters more than you’d think. From the northern hemisphere, Lyra will be in the east just after sunset. If you’re looking a little later, it will be higher up in the sky, making it a better time to look for meteors – although the closer you get to sunrise, the brighter the sky will be. The easiest way to find Lyra is to look for a pattern of stars known as the Summer Triangle, so named because it is made up of three bright stars in a triangle shape and, in summer in the northern hemisphere, around midnight, it appears directly overhead. At midnight in late April, the three bright stars will appear near the eastern horizon. The highest of these is Vega, and this is in Lyra.
If you’re aiming for the peak and you have clear and dark skies, you could see between 10 and 18 meteors in an hour. Out there, the whole experience can feel a bit like waiting for the first spark—then suddenly your eyes adjust. There’s this small moment where you notice the cold air on your face, and it’s not just about astronomy anymore, it’s about paying attention.
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