The next long-awaited meteor shower peaks this week, don't miss it

The Lyrid meteor shower will be the first significant meteor shower since the Quadrantid in January this year.

The Quadrantid meteor shower took place on January 3rd, and now, 109 days (over 15 weeks) later, the April Lyrids will peak in the morning hours of April 22nd. While many meteor showers and shooting stars are witnessed throughout the year, the Quadrantids and Lyrids represent two of the ten 'principal' meteor displays.

The Lyrids are considered one of the weaker principal displays, with about 10 to 20 meteors per hour being visible at most. If poor weather prevents you from viewing the Lyrids in your area, the shower still occurs with about one-quarter of its peak strength for two days on either side of the maximum peak on the 22nd.

The radiant, i.e., the point in the sky from which all meteors in a shower appear to emanate, will be about 6 degrees southwest of the Vega star in the constellation Lyra. In the northern hemisphere, Vega will rise in the northeast of the sky in the late evening and be almost overhead closer to dawn.

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