Lyrids Peaking!
For the next several nights, beginning around midnight and going into the pre-dawn hours is the peak of the Lyrid meteor shower!
To observe a meteor shower, it’s ideal to have as wide a view of the eastern horizon as possible, but to maximize your chances of catching a few fiery streaks of space dust you’ll want to have the widest view of the sky overall, not necessarily concentrated in one spot.
Why is this? As Earth passes through the trail of space debris left behind comet C/1861 G1 Thatcher (which won’t make another pass through our solar system until the year 2280), the “front” side of our planet is heading almost directly toward the constellation Lyra, hence the name. The exact point we’re heading towards is called the ‘radiant’, and every meteor you see will appear to streak away from this point, and conversely the tail of every streak will point back to this origin. But the one place you’ll never actually see meteors is exactly at this point, the reason being that a meteor coming head-on from this radiant point will only appear to brighten for a flash and then disappear, leaving no streak as it’s coming directly ahead.
This is exactly the same reason that when the Millenium Falcon performs a hyperspace jump, all the stars appear to point away from the center, which is the direction they’re travelling. Meteors are behaving the same way, just not quite as bright, sadly.
The meteor shower tonight is expected to reach up to 20 meteors per hour, though this is under ideal conditions with an unobstructed view of the sky and no light pollution. To increase your odds of catching a few, slowly scan the sky in a wide arc, looking as high as you can (laying down in the grass helps!) and keeping your peripheral vision moving just above the horizon. If you can find the radiant (see the accompanying chart), sweep in wide circles around this point, but keep in mind meteors are fairly faint and can appear anywhere in the sky, the radiant only gives us information about the direction of travel, not the chance of appearance in that region.
Another trick, try to avoid looking at streetlights or your phone, even that little bit of light can dull the sensitivity of your night vision and make it difficult to see the faint meteors, it’s best to give yourself 10-15 minutes to adjust, and if you must check your phone use only one eye and preserve the other for meteor hunting.
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Stay well, and clear skies!