Live streaming of Lyrid meteor shower: Watch it here

Representational image (Pic courtesy: www.jpl.nasa.gov)

New Delhi: The Lyrid meteor shower is expected to peak shortly before dawn on April 22, 2018. Up to 20 meteors per hour will likely be visible overnight on April 21-22, as per NASA`s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. 

According to  Jet Propulsion Laboratory, "Lyrid meteors are active from April 14 through the 30th. They peak on the 22nd. In the early morning sky, a patient observer will see up to more than a dozen meteors per hour in this medium-strength shower, with 18 meteors per hour calculated for the peak. US observers should see good rates on the nights before and after this peak. A bright first quarter moon plays havoc with sky conditions, marring most of the typically faint Lyrid meteors. But Lyra will be high overhead after the moon sets at midnight, so that's the best time to look for Lyrids."

The meteor shower can be watched on a free webcast from the Slooh Community Observatory. Its five-hour show will have expert commentary from observatories in Chile, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and the Canary Islands.

The Lyrids webcast can be watched here - www.slooh.com.

The Lyrids are classified as a medium-strength shower. To quote NASA - "Lyrids are pieces of debris from the periodic Comet C/1861 G1 Thatcher and have been observed for more than 2,600 years. In mid-April of each year, Earth runs into the stream of debris from the comet, which causes the Lyrid meteor shower. You can tell if a meteor belongs to a particular shower by tracing back its path to see if it originates near a specific point in the sky, called the radiant. The constellation in which the radiant is located gives the shower its name, and in this case, Lyrids appear to come from a point in the constellation Lyra."