Meteor showers are one of the greatest gifts from space, and thanks to the upcoming Lyrid shower, you’ll soon be able to see one. So often when talking about outer space, the conversation revolves around amazing things captured by professional rovers and telescopes. It’s undeniably fun to follow the latest discovery from Perseverance or Hubble, but they’re finding things you’ll likely never see yourself. The discoveries are impressive, sure, but they also feel a bit removed from reality.

That’s what makes events like meteor showers so exciting. Looking at a Hubble photo is one thing. But to see a shooting star, a full moon, or a lunar eclipse with your eyes is all the more impactful. 2022 kicked off with a bang with the Quadrantid meteor shower on January 3. Fast forward over 100 days later, and it’s finally time for the next meteor shower to take over the night sky.

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Starting on Friday, April 22, the Lyrid meteor shower will be on full display. Records of the Lyrid shower date all the way back to 687 B.C. when it was first recorded by Chinese astronomers. It’s not the brightest or most visually stunning shower, but the Lyrid meteor shower acts as a fantastic event to kick off warm Spring days. While this year’s Lyrid shower technically began on April 15, the best time to watch it will be this Friday.

How To Watch The Lyrid Meteor Shower

perseid meteor shower peak 2021

Photo via NASA/Bill Dunford

While it’s difficult to predict the exact peak time for a meteor shower, it’s estimated that the 2022 Lyrid shower will peak around 12:00 midnight ET on April 22. The shower should also be visible late in the evening on April 22, but the best viewing time will be late April 21/early morning April 22. The Lyrid meteor shower should produce around 10 – 15 meteors per hour, though Lyrid’s known for having unusually high peaks and may create up to 100 meteors per hour.

To get the best view of the Lyrid shower, NASA recommends heading outside around 30 minutes before you expect to see any meteors. This gives your eyes enough time to adjust to the darkness and get the best view possible. You’ll also want to try and watch the Lyrid shower from a place with little-to-no light pollution. Watching the shower from a rural area or somewhere off in the country? Perfect. Trying to catch the shower from the heart of NYC? It’ll be a lot trickier to see anything.

You’ll also want to be mindful of the Moon while looking for the Lyrid shower. The current waning gibbous phase means the Moon will be quite bright around the same time the Lyrid shower is expected to peak. Because of this, watching the shower underneath a tree, shed, porch, or another object should help block some of the moonlight and give you a clearer view.