Lyrid Meteor Shower 2013 Peak: The Best Time to Watch

An spectacle out of this world. The Lyrid meteor shower is already underway, with its peak due this Monday and Tuesday. Don't miss it.

The skies have been largely empty of visible meteor showers since the Quadrantids of early January, but the shooting stars of the Lyrids have been a reliable spectacle for, oh, 2,600 years or so.

The Lyrids meteor shower peaks in 2013 on April 21 and 22, but some meteors have been visible, at least in theory, since April 16. You can see what to look for in this video of the Lyrid meteor shower. Or check out photos of the Lyrids. And these charts of the Lyrids may help you locate the shooting stars.

The Lyrids tend to be bright and often leave trails and tend to peak at about 10-20 meteors per hour. One of the unpredictable aspects of this shower, though, is that it’s known for uncommon surges that sometimes result in up to 100 shooting stars per hour.

A downside certainly exists this year: The moon will be bright until a couple of hours before dawn. Still, the greatest number of shooting stars tend to come after the moon departs anyway, so the show could still make getting up early worth it.