April Meteor Shower

I haven't written about the April Lyrids for a few years now because the shower had been in decline, and the observing conditions were always poor to fair at best. Well, this year the shower peaks at around midnight on the night of April 21-22, and, best of all, the Moon will be New and will not blot out any of the meteors.

The Lyrids appear to radiate outward from an area of sky on the Lyra and Hercules border, which will be about 45 degrees (halfway between the horizon and zenith) above the eastern horizon at midnight and well placed for observing.

These swift and bright meteors disintegrate after hitting our atmosphere at a moderate speed of 29.8 miles per second. They often produce luminous trains of dust that can be observed for several seconds. Predicting the peak number of meteors per hour for this shower would be guesswork at best.

However, unless something unusual happens, you can perhaps expect to see about a dozen meteors during the peak time if you observe well away from city lights.

Good luck. We can only hope that clouds and rain showers won’t spoil the view.