Take a long look up in the night sky and you just might be in for a treat when the annual Lyrid meteor shower invades the sky over Beaufort this week.
The first meteor shower of spring started a few days ago and will peak overnight this Friday, April 22nd, and into the early hours of Saturday. Without any glaring moonlight to obstruct the view, skywatchers will have an excellent view of the show.
There hasn’t been a meteor shower to light up the sky since early January, and this one will be visible around the globe.
The waxing crescent moon will allow a better view of these bright meteors with the best time to see them being late Tuesday evening and nightly into the early morning hours of Saturday, between midnight and 4am and 5am.
From a dark, clear sky, observers in the Northern Hemisphere can expect to see as many as 10 to 20 meteors per hour during the shower’s peak. Because the shower is active from mid- to late April, some Lyrid meteors may still appear before and after the peak, and the low groundlight we have in Beaufort and on the sea islands gives us best chance to see them.
The shower occurs this time each year when Earth’s orbit crosses paths with that of Comet Thatcher. The comet loses pieces of itself that go flying into our upper atmosphere at 110,000 miles per hour.
Lyrid gets its name from the Lyra constellation. The Lyrid shower is one of the oldest known, with records of visible meteors going back 2,700 years, according to EarthSky.
How to see them
If you live in an urban area, you may want to drive to a place that isn’t littered with city lights that will obstruct your view.
Find an open area with a wide view of the sky. Make sure you have a chair or blanket so you can look straight up. And give your eyes about 20 to 30 minutes to adjust to the darkness, without looking at your phone, so meteors are easier to spot.
Also, keep an eye out for a rare grouping of Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and Mars in the sky over the next several days. All four planets are bright enough in the night sky to see with the naked eye.
