Stargazers Have Shot at Seeing 2nd Major Meteor Shower of 2013

The forecast calls for partly cloudy skies and a chance of rain, but the possibility of seeing the second major meteor shower of the year remains.

The first major meteor shower since January is currently visible, with peak hours coming during the predawn hours on Sunday, April 21 and Monday, April 22. The Lyrid meteor shower should be visible in one way or another from now through April 26, Mark Paquette of Accuweather said this week.

The forecast from the National Weather Service for predawn hours on Sunday, April 21 calls for partly cloudy skies. Sunday may be the best bet to see the Lyrids because the weather could turn to rain by Monday morning. The forecast from Monday through April 26, the last day of visibility, features rain and cloudy skies.

The Lyrids average 10 to 20 meteors an hour, but the possibility remains that there could be significantly more.

"It is unpredictable," Paquette said. "Sometimes lyrids have 'surges' which can break up the rate to near 100 per hour."

Lyrids are the debris of the Comet Thatcher tail when the Earth’s path crosses through it, Paquette said. They are bits of the comet’s tail that hit the atmosphere at 49 kilometers a second, and are typically smaller than a grain of sand.

As the Lyrids travel through the atmosphere, they disintegrate into streaks of light. They may cast a shadow and leave behind smoke-like trails of debris.

"Lyrid meteors are typically as bright as the stars in the Big Dipper, which is to say, middling brightness, but some are more intense, even brighter than Venus," Paquette said.

The Lyrids are named because of their location near the star Vega, the brightest star in the Lyra Constellation. Vega sits nearly overhead, making the predawn hours the prime time for viewing. However, the meteor shower sits closer to the horizon, blocking many of them from view.

The moon will also light up the sky until after midnight, dimming the sight of the meteors, but it won’t hinder the view of the showers when it moves into peak hours.