ABOVE: The annual Lyrid meter shower turned the skies over China in a beautiful display Wednesday night (April 23)
TORONTO – If the skies are clear, you might want to step outside and try to catch a few “shooting stars” over the next few days.
The Lyrid meteor shower is upon us. The Lyrids are the result of particles from Comet Thatcher, which has an orbital period of 415 years. As Earth passes through the path of the Comet Thatcher, small particles enter our atmosphere, appearing as bright streaks of light — meteors.
The shower, which runs from April 16 to the 25 peaks on Wednesday night.
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Ideally, you want to get to a dark sky location, away from city lights. The moon will be around 30 per cent full, but on the plus side, it will be setting as the shower begins to peak around 12:00 a.m. ET in the east.
Watching meteor showers is one of the easiest things to do. You just need to look up: no binoculars and no telescope are required. The key is allowing your eyes to become adapted to the dark (that means stay off your cell phone!). Just find a dark place, bring a chair and a blanket, dress warmly (it’s easy to get chilly while lying outside) and look up.
Don’t give up if you don’t see anything for a while: it’s all about patience. This shower doesn’t produce a lot of meteors per hour, just about 10, which is significantly less than one of the best meteor showers — the Perseids — which produce about 100 an hour in August. However, the Lyrids are known to produce some fireballs.
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