See the Lyrid meteor shower: This Week in Astronomy with Dave Eicher

Astronomy: Roen Kelly

Hi folks, tune in every week of 2023 for the best in astronomy from Astronomy Editor Dave Eicher, brought to you by Celestron.

This week, we’ll teach you how you can see the Lyrid meteor shower, which peaked last night (April 23) and still offers a great opportunity to view the bright streaks created by cosmic dust tearing through Earth’s atmosphere.

The constellation Lyra (for which the shower is named) is marked by the bright star Vega, which shines at magnitude 0 and is one of the three points that make up the Summer Triangle asterism.

The Lyrids appear to originate from a radiant about 8° to the upper right (west) of Vega as it rises. This point lies about one-third of the way between Vega and 3rd-magnitude Sarin in Hercules. Once you’ve found the area, however, you’ll want to look away from it to the north or south. The farther from the radiant you look, the longer meteor trails will appear as shower members streak across the sky.

If the weather is fair, it’s certainly worth stepping outside early this week a few hours before dawn to see if you can catch a few bright shooting stars in the sky.

For more information on what to look for in the night sky, check out the latest edition of The Sky This Week: https://astronomy.com/observing/sky-this-week/2023/04/the-sky-this-week-from-march-april-21-to-28

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