Maybe not as famous as the summer meteor showers, but if you have a clear sky above your head tonight, you might enjoy the spectacle of the Lyrid meteors.
The Lyrid are one of the oldest meteor showers known, which take their name from the constellation of Lyra, where they seem to originate from. In reality, the meteors in this shower are the fragments left over by comet C/186 Thatcher, a long period comet that orbits the Sun roughly every 415 years and was last seen in 1861.
The shower will peak on April 22 between midnight and dawn, which means star-gazing these shooting stars will make a great weekend activity. The ideal place to see them will be in the Northern Hemisphere, with astronomers expecting about 20 meteors per hour. They will be visible to the naked eye, so don't worry about packing too many gizmos, and since the Moon is a waning crescent, its light shouldn't be too bad.
