Lyrid Meteor Shower Peaks Tonight! How to Watch the Spectacular Show on Earth Day

Turn your eyes to the skies tonight; you may just be in for a spectacular show. The Lyrid meteor shower is scheduled to perform late tonight and into early tomorrow morning during Earth Day, though you may have a hard time seeing it due to the moon.

That's not to say that you won't be able to see the Lyrid meteor shower at all, though. According to USA Today, the meteor shower may peak during the early morning hours of April 22, but it will be visible for much of the week. In addition, the Lyrids are bright, so the show should be able to stand some of the light from the waning gibbous moon. In fact, the comets are about as bright as the stars in the Big Dipper.

While the meteors in this shower appear to stream from the bright star Vega in the constellation Lyra, the reality is that they come from the dusty tail of Comet Thatcher (C/1861 G1), according to Spaceweater. In the past, there have been as many as 20 meteors recorded per house.

In order to see the meteor shower, find a spot away from artificial lights and look upward. The best time to see the meteors tonight will be between midnight and dawn, according to USA Today. And while this shower is projected to just have 20 meteors per hour at its peak, the Lyrid shower is notoriously unpredictable; astronomers have sometimes witnessed as many as 100 meteors per hour in rare instances, according to EarthSky.

Don't have a way to see the meteor shower? You can still catch a glimpse of it. NASA is planning to livestream the event on its website.

This won't necessarily be the best meteor shower of the year, though. The most spectacular one is usually attributed to the Perseids in August or the Geminids in December, according to EarthSky. Even so, it should be a great opportunity to get in some good stargazing. While the peak night is tonight, the Lyrids are expected to be active until April 25.

The next big meteor shower should be the Perseids. The peak night for the Perseids should be on Aug. 11 to 12, according to AMS. However, they will be active from July 13 to August 26.