JACKSON, Wyo. — The peak of the Lyrid meteor shower will happen during the early morning hours on April 22, roughly around 6 a.m.
According to Samuel Singer, founder and executive director of Wyoming Stargazing, the Lyrid meteor shower is the oldest known meteor shower. It’s been observed for 2,700 years, dating back to 687 B.C.
The name Lyrid comes from Lyra, the name of the constellation the meteors seem to stream from. This time of year, Lyra is on the eastern sky and low to the horizon, but as the night progresses it will raise higher and higher.
The Lyrid meteor shower is known for its extra bright streaks. This month’s full moon, which reaches true fullness on April 23, will light up the night sky during showers on April 21 and 22, making the less bright streaks more difficult to see.
Singer told Buckrail what to expect this year while looking up. “We call them meteor showers, but it’s more like meteor trickles,” Singer said. “A burst can be approximately 100 an hour but we will most likely see one one meteor every few minutes, at best with the full moon.”
Meteor showers are all about where the debris fields are out in space; when the earth’s orbit crosses a debris field, it’s a meteor shower. Each debris field is left over by a comet.
“Most meteors (the momentary flash of light) that we see are caused by particles of rock no bigger than a coarse grain of salt,” Singer said. “The larger streaks of light, which we call bolides, that seem to go a long way across the sky are caused by the walnut or grape sized particles of rock.”
The comet associated with the Lyrid shower is Comet Thatcher, which was discovered by Alfred Thatcher on April 5, 1861. While Singer says no one has seen the comet since, because it has such a long orbit around the sun, it will be close enough to see again in 2283. The Lyrid meteor shower is the only shower associated with the Comet Thatcher.
The Lyrid shower is something Singer recommends watching unassisted, without the use of binoculars or scopes which can limit your view of the night sky.
Singer mentions that every 60 years there seems to be an outburst of meteors due to how the earth’s gravitational field reshapes the debris field of a comet, so the next really spectacular Lyrid meteor shower will be in 2042.
