There is good news for all sky gazers as a breathtaking meteor shower is all set to lighten up skies this weekend.
The astounding Lyrid meteor shower that occurs every year between April 16 and April 25 is all set to start this week. The phenomenon takes place when Earth passes through the tail of a comet.
As EarthSky predicts, the best glance of the shower could be seen in the early morning hours of April 22, for the people in the northern hemisphere. This is the time when the shower is supposed to ‘peak’ with about 10-20 meteors per hour showing.
Save the dates for these amazing sky events happening in 2018
“In 2018, the peak of this shower — which tends to come in a burst and usually lasts for less than a day — is expected to fall on the morning of April 22, with little or no interference from the waxing moon,” Bruce McClure of Earthsky said.
Waxing moon refers to when the moon is getting larger in the sky, moving from the new moon towards the full moon.
Meteor showers can be witness with a naked eye and as a matter of fact, using telescopes or binoculars might cause the gazers to miss it since they can appear all across the sky, wrote Business Insider.
The Lyrids are the remains from the comet Thatcher and has been observed for over 2,700 years, marking themselves as one of the oldest known showers. Back in 687 BC, Chinese astronomers even compared the Lyrids to a ‘rainfall of stars’. These Lyrids are best recognized for being fast and bright meteors, as per NASA.