Meteor Showers To Dazzle MD Skies: Will Mother Nature Cooperate?

MARYLAND — After a three-month drought, meteor showers are back, starting with the Lyrids, which peak overnight Monday and Tuesday. Whether you’ll be able to see the shooting star show, known for its fireballs, depends on weather conditions in Maryland.

Mother Nature may or may not cooperate, according to the National Weather Service’s latest forecast. While mostly cloudy skies and a chance of showers are predicted for Monday, conditions could be better Tuesday night when the forecast calls for just partly cloudy skies.

April’s pink moon — so-called because this is the time of year pink ground phlox and other wildflowers begin blooming — will be about 50 percent illuminated, which should allow for decent meteor shower viewing conditions.

The Lyrid meteor shower is an average sky show, producing about 15 or 20 shooting stars an hour, but it historically has produced bright fireballs that blaze across the sky and leave dust trails that last for several seconds, according to NASA. Fireballs can be bright enough to penetrate bright moonlight.

The Lyrids can fire off a surprise, though, with counts of as many as 100 shooting stars an hour, according to NASA. Sightings of these heavier showers occurred in Virginia in 1803, Greece in 1922, Japan in 1945, and the United States in 1982.

As with most meteor showers, this one is best viewed in the early morning hours before dawn. Find a dark sky, take along a reclining lawn chair if you can, and blankets to keep you warm. Although meteor showers do have radiant points — in this case, it’s in the constellation Lyra, close to Vega, one of the brightest stars in the night sky — but you don’t have to locate it to see shooting stars, which will appear all over the sky.

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The Lyrid meteor shower runs through the end of the month, intersecting with the Eta Aquariids, which offer a much better chance to see shooting stars. Sometimes called the Eta Aquarids, the meteor shower rambles along from April 15 to May 27, and peaks May 5-6. This shooting star show has a broad peak, and that means skywatchers may see elevated numbers of meteors a few days before and after the peak.

At the peak, about 30 meteors may be seen an hour, although as many as 60 an hour have been reported, according to NASA.

These shooting stars are known for speed, entering Earth’s atmosphere at about 148,000 miles an hour, and also for leaving glowing “trains” — incandescent bits of debris — that last for several seconds to minutes.