Everything You Need to Know About Watching the Lyrid Meteor Shower in 2025

While January to March offers immoderate of the darkest skies for stargazing successful the Northern Hemisphere, it's erstwhile meteor showers are astatine their quietest. That's wherefore the Lyrid meteor ablution is ever an breathtaking lawsuit each year. Let's look astatine what it is, however you tin spot it, and however to seizure it connected camera.

What and Where Is the Lyrid Meteor Shower?

The Lyrid meteor ablution is caused by tiny pieces of debris falling from and trailing down the C/1861 G1 (Thatcher) comet, which was discovered by amateur astronomer A. E. Thatcher successful 1861. As the Earth passes done Thatcher's star orbit, the trailing debris collides with our ambiance to make a stunning meteor display. It's called the Lyrid meteor ablution due to the fact that the shoots of airy look to originate adjacent the Lyra constellation, but successful fact, the ablution has thing to bash with Lyra different than this evident positional coherence.

Our satellite passes done Thatcher's way erstwhile a twelvemonth successful April. More specifically, this year, it lasts from astir April 16 to April 25, peaking connected the nighttime of April 22-23. The Lyra constellation is champion viewable successful Northern-Hemisphere skies, and the Lyrid meteor shower's radiant constituent is acold northbound connected the sky's dome. While you mightiness spot immoderate meteors if you're successful Cape Town oregon Canberra, you're much apt to admit its spectacle successful Montreal, Memphis, and Manchester.

How to Watch the Lyrid Meteor Shower

To find the Lyra constellation, look for its brightest star, Vega, which is besides the fifth-brightest prima successful the nighttime sky. You'll spot the Lyra constellation nether the right-hand helping of the overmuch larger Cygnus constellation.

There are many stargazing apps you tin usage to assistance you find phenomena successful the sky. SkySafari is utile due to the fact that you tin benignant the sanction of the constellation oregon prima you're searching for, and it'll assistance you halfway the object. However, don't interest astir focusing your regard solely connected Lyra for the Lyrid meteor shower—you'll spot the shooting trails of airy each implicit the nighttime sky. Also, immoderate meteors you spot little successful the entity mightiness beryllium from the Eta Aquariid meteor shower, which runs concurrently with the Lyrid meteor shower.

The quality of meteor showers is that you don't request immoderate peculiar instrumentality to spot them. What you bash need, however, is patience.

The champion clip to spot the Lyrid meteor ablution is successful the aboriginal hours of the highest morning, truthful aft midnight connected April 22. You'll person overmuch much of a accidental of seeing the show if you person a acheronian entity distant from metropolis lights (use a airy contamination map to assistance you with this) and a wide tract of view.

Once you've located a harmless spot, drawback a mug of thing hot, acceptable a broad connected the ground, and simply look upwards. Be warned: blink, and you mightiness miss one. You mightiness adjacent person to hold an hr earlier witnessing this astronomical spectacle—meteor showers are frustratingly unpredictable—but if you're diligent (and lucky), you tin expect to spot betwixt 10 and 25 an hr successful the close conditions. Your eyes volition request to instrumentality clip to set to the acheronian anyway, truthful waiting astir for a portion won't bash immoderate harm.

Will the Moon and Clouds Get successful My Way?

The biggest last obstacles to shooting prima occurrence are things you can't control.

The bully news, however, is that the satellite volition beryllium waning towards the extremity of the month. More specifically, aft the afloat satellite connected April 13, not lone volition the proportionality of the satellite reflecting the Sun's airy trim arsenic the period progresses, but it volition stay beneath the skyline until the aboriginal hours of the greeting arsenic the Lyrid meteor ablution reaches its peak. As a result, unless you're an aboriginal greeting stargazer, you tin expect to debar immoderate unwanted lunar airy obscuring your presumption of the faintest meteors.

The different earthy obstruction is clouds—the biggest thorn successful immoderate stargazer's side. Even if you effort to program up utilizing the section upwind forecast, things tin alteration successful an instant. So, don't beryllium disappointed if you person to perpetually alteration your plans! But remember, each things being well, you'll drawback immoderate shooting stars astatine immoderate constituent betwixt April 16 and April 25 if you find the close conditions.

How to Photograph the Lyrid Meteor Shower

Just witnessing the Lyrid meteor ablution should beryllium capable to wow you, but photographing a streak of particulate burning up successful our ambiance tin adhd an other spot of joyousness to this addictive hobby. The archetypal happening you'll request is a sturdy tripod. For the champion accidental to drawback a shooting star, you'll request to set your phone's camera to a agelong exposure and support it precise still. Some phones besides person an astrophotography mode designed to assistance you instrumentality cleanable photos of the nighttime sky.

Going backmost to the earlier constituent astir acheronian skies, the aforesaid applies to astrophotography. If you're adjacent immoderate artificial lights, they volition flood your camera lens and severely disrupt your shot.

NightCap is simply a large app for capturing moving objects successful the entity if you usage an iPhone. Along with options for capturing the International Space Station and prima trails, there's a Meteor Mode, which automatically detects immoderate sudden, agleam movements of airy successful the entity and saves them successful your gallery.

While akin apps are besides disposable for Android phones, expanding the vulnerability clip successful your camera's nighttime mode (and, if possible, mounting a five-second shutter timer oregon utilizing a shutter-release cable truthful you don't accidentally wobble your shot) volition astir surely bash the instrumentality if you sprout capable pics.

You should besides turn down the brightness connected your phone's screen. Otherwise, your eyes volition instrumentality clip to set erstwhile you look backmost up astatine the sky. Above all, whether you're retired to ticker oregon photograph the Lyrid meteor shower, cheque the upwind forecast, acceptable speech plentifulness of time, support warm, experiment, and enjoy!