Lyrids Meteor Shower: A spectacle not to be missed

The Lyrids Meteor Shower will set the skies ablaze this weekend – and avid stargazers won’t want to miss out!

Lyrids Meteor Shower this weekend

The Lyrids Meteor shower, which is the world’s oldest recorded meteor shower, is said to hit its peak in the early hours of Sunday, 23 April, with up to 18 meteors visible per hour, reports Getaway.

The Meteor Shower is named after the Lyra constellation, and was first reported over 2 500 years ago with its first sighting in 687 B.C. in China.

According to the Astronomical Society of Southern Africa – Bloemfontein, ‘Lyra (the Lire/Harp) is a small but prominent constellation in wintertime. Its brightest star, Vega, is also the 5th brightest star in the night sky. Its other stars are much fainter and forms most noticably a parallelogram of 4 stars above Vega and slightly to the right. It lies on the edge of the milky way and contain some stunning deep sky objects and double stars.’

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When to see it

As per the South African Astronomical Observatory, the April Lyrids Meteor Shower can be seen from 14 to 30 April 2023, reaching its peak in the early hours on 23 April, between 02:00 am and 05:00 am.

There is also no need for a telescope or binoculars to view the meteor spectacle.

Just look up!

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What is a Meteor Shower?

NASA describes a meteor as a space rock or meteoroid that enters Earth’s atmosphere.

When Earth encounters many meteoroids at once, it’s called a meteor shower.

“As the space rock falls toward Earth, the resistance — or drag — of the air on the rock makes it extremely hot. What we see is a “shooting star.” That bright streak is not actually the rock, but rather the glowing hot air as the hot rock zips through the atmosphere,” NASA writes on its website.

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