Look Up! The Lyrid Meteor Shower Graces Our Skies This Week

If the prolonged winter weather has dampened your spirits, this week is a perfect time to look up and enjoy an expansive, dazzling sight. The 2022 Lyrids Meteor Shower will be visible this week. This year, the moon will be in a waning gibbous phase during the Lyrids’ peak, so the best viewing period will be between the late evening hours (around 9 p.m.) of April 21 and moonrise (around 2 a.m.) on April 22.

Where to Look

Here in northern Wisconsin, we are blessed with dark night skies that are unpolluted by city lights—perfect for stargazing. But wherever you are hunkered down, find a place where you can view the dark sky while safely practicing social distancing. If you are out early in the night, look to the southwest. If you are out closer to the morning, look directly overhead. You’re looking for the constellation, Lyra, and the star, Vega. This is the radiant, and meteors will appear to be traveling outward from there. So don’t just look at the radiant itself; the display will be all around it!

What You’ll See

This reliable meteor shower features brilliant meteors emanating away from the radiant. The meteors will travel fairly quickly, and 20 to 25 percent of them will have beautiful incandescent light trails behind them.

Some years, the Lyrid Meteor Shower features surprisingly rich displays. In 1802, viewers described the sight as resembling a “shower of skyrockets.” While the average rate of meteors during this shower is predicted to be about 15 per hour, there are occasional outbursts of much higher rates, such as 96 meteors per hour recorded in 1922 and 90 to 100 per hour recorded in 1982!

What to Bring

It’s going to be a brisk night, so bundle up in your winter coat and a blanket, bring a lounge chair so you can relax while gazing upward, and sip some hot cocoa to add a little sweetness to this magical event.

When the Lyrid Meteor Shower Will Return

If the cloudy skies get in the way of tonight’s show, remember that the meteor shower will continue to be visible each night this week. And even if you don’t make it outside at all this week, this reliable meteor shower graces our skies each April.