View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Jeremy Evans of California captured a Lyrid meteor zipping along the Milky way on April 22, 2025. Jeremy wrote: “Lyrids Meteor Shower, April 22nd at peak activity. It was a quiet shower this year. I had my camera going all night and only caught one meteor. This single frame is from an all night 1200 frame time lapse on my front deck, I’m very fortunate to live under dark Bortle 2 skies. The glow on the horizon is from the last quarter moon just before rising. This meteor also left smoke trails.” Thank you, Jeremy.
April 2026 meteors … the Lyrids
When to watch in 2026: After midnight and through dawn on the morning of April 22. The predicted** peak is 19:15 UTC on April 22. The peak of the Lyrids is narrow (no weeks-long stretches of meteor-watching, as with some showers). In 2026, the first quarter moon falls at 2:32 UTC on April 24. So meteor watching after midnight and before dawn on April 22 will be under a dark and moonless sky. Radiant: Rises before midnight, highest in the sky at dawn. Nearest moon phase: First quarter moon falls at 2:32 UTC on April 24. So a fat waxing crescent moon – that sets after midnight – won’t interfere with the peak morning of the 2026’s Lyrid meteor shower. The best time to watch is after midnight and before dawn on the morning of April 22. Duration of shower: April 15 to April 29. This time period is when we’re passing through the meteor stream in space! Expected meteors at peak, under ideal conditions: In a dark sky with no moon, you might see 10 to 15 Lyrids per hour. The Lyrids are known for uncommon surges that can sometimes bring rates of up to 100 per hour! Read more about Lyrid outbursts. Note for Southern Hemisphere: This shower’s radiant point is far to the north on the sky’s dome. So the Southern Hemisphere will see fewer Lyrid meteors. Still, you might see some! Meteor train possibilities? In a moonless sky, a few Lyrid meteors can leave persistent trains. That is, they leave a trail of ionized gases that glow for a few seconds after the meteor has passed. Lyrids are known to produce fireballs.
Meteors and comets are 2 different things. This image shows a “fireball” – a very bright meteor – falling earthward. During a meteor shower, meteor watchers most often see earthgrazer fireballs like this one in the early part of the night. Image via NASA/ George Varros/ Wikipedia (public domain).
Most meteor showers are caused by debris from a passing comet. For the Lyrids, the comet is named Comet Thatcher. Maybe you’re wondering: Have I ever observed Comet Thatcher? The answer is no. And your children won’t see it either.
Astronomers first noticed this comet in 1861, around the time of its last perihelion, or closest point to the sun. It takes roughly 415 years to go around the sun once. Its path brings it within the Earth’s orbit, then it goes really far away, a distance of about 110 astronomical units (AU). That’s 110 times farther from the sun than we are.
So Comet Thatcher is now far away, still traveling outward, away from our sun. It’ll reach its farthest point from the sun around the year 2070, and then begin its return trip to reach its next perihelion around year 2283.
The Lyrid meteor shower – spawned by this comet – seems to outburst, or produce an unexpectedly large number of meteors, every 60 years. The next Lyrid outburst is due in 2042. The outbursts happen because of the planets’ reshaping the long trail of comet debris left behind by Comet Thatcher in its long orbit. This debris is what intercepts Earth’s orbit yearly to create the meteor shower.
It was Alfred E. Thatcher from New York City who discovered this comet – now officially C/1861 G1 (Thatcher) – on April 5, 1861. At that time the comet was in the direction of our sky’s north polar region, toward what we see as the constellation Draco. Alfred Thatcher was using a 4.5-inch-diameter (11cm) refracting telescope, magnifying 30 times. The comet was shining at magnitude 7.5, fainter than the unaided eye can see.
But over the next few weeks, as the comet approached both the sun and the Earth, it brightened considerably. It became visible to the eye and remained so until it disappeared into the evening twilight in early June 1861. Observers in the Southern Hemisphere picked it up in late July and followed the comet for the next five weeks, until it became too faint to see from anywhere on Earth.
Comet Thatcher will be back in the year 2278. But its debris trail, the Lyrid meteor shower, will be here every April.
This illustration shows the parent comet of the Lyrid shower, Comet Thatcher. This comet has a long orbit around the sun, longer than any of the major planets. At the bottom of this image, you see our sun and the relatively tiny orbits of the terrestrial planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. The longer lines, bisecting the image, represent the orbits of some of the outer, gaseous planets. And check out this comet’s orbit, in white! Comet Thatcher – the parent comet of the Lyrids – orbits the sun roughly every 415 years. It hasn’t been seen since the year 1861. Its orbit is littered with icy debris. It’s when that icy cometary debris enters Earth’s atmosphere that we see Lyrid meteors! Special thanks to our friend Bob King, aka AstroBob, for this wonderful illustration.
How to find the Lyrid meteor shower radiant point
Lyrid meteors radiate from near the bright star Vega in the constellation Lyra the Harp. You don’t need to identify Vega or Lyra in order to watch the Lyrid meteor shower. But you do need to know when the radiant rises, in this case in the northeast before midnight. That’s why the Lyrids are typically best between midnight and dawn. You’ll see the most meteors after the radiant has come over the horizon. The meteors radiate from there, but will appear unexpectedly, in any and all parts of the sky. Image via EarthSky.
From the Northern Hemisphere. The bright star Vega in the constellation Lyra – near the radiant point for the Lyrid shower – rises above your local horizon, in the northeast, around 9 to 10 p.m. your local time in April. That’s the time on your clock, from mid-latitudes, from the northern part of the globe. Vega climbs upward through the rest of the night. By midnight, Vega is high enough in the sky that meteors radiating from that direction streak across your sky. Just before dawn, Vega and the radiant point shine high overhead, and the meteors will be raining down from the top of the Northern Hemisphere sky.
From the Southern Hemisphere. Vega – and the Lyrid meteors’ radiant point – don’t rise until the hours before dawn from the southern mid-latitudes. From there, the radiant point never gets very high in the sky. Many of the meteors that come from this point head northward, below your horizon if you’re in the Southern Hemisphere. Thus, you have a narrower window for watching this particular, far-northern shower. Still, you might see some meteors!
The higher Vega appears in your sky, the more meteors you’re likely to see.
Lyrids radiant point and surrounding constellations
The radiant point of the Lyrid meteor shower, seen here in sky mode (from the the earth’s surface, looking up). Chart via Guy Ottewell’s 2025 Astronomical Calendar. Used with permission.
Lyrid meteors and Earth, from space
On the night of April 21, 2012, the Lyrid meteor shower peaked in the skies over Earth. Astronaut Don Pettit aboard the International Space Station trained his camera on Earth. Video footage from that night can be seen in the video below. The bright points of light are the meteors ablating – or burning up – in Earth’s atmosphere.
The Lyrid meteor shower has the distinction of being among the oldest of known meteor showers. Records of this shower go back for some 2,700 years. In fact, the ancient Chinese seem to have observed the Lyrid meteors falling like rain in the year 687 BCE. That time period in ancient China, by the way, corresponds with what is called the Spring and Autumn Period (about 771 to 476 BCE), which tradition associates with the Chinese teacher and philosopher Confucius, one of the first to espouse the principle:
Do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself.
Portrait of Confucius. Was he a meteor-watcher? Image via Wikipedia (public domain).
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Kathie O’Donnell of South Dakota captured this image on April 20, 2024, and wrote: “Had one night of very clear skies. Surprised to see twin Lyrids upon reviewing my all-night GoPro images. Found several others but they were very faint.” Thank you, Kathie!View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Steve Price captured this image in Utah on April 20, 2023, and wrote: “One Lyrid meteor streaking past the Eagle Nebula and a couple of early morning satellites. The foreground is blurred from the star tracker following the stars. A little bit of green and red airglow is showing on the left”. Thank you, Steve.View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Nils Ribi captured this image in Utah on April 17, 2023, and wrote: “I was setting up to photograph the Milky Way over the Windows section of Arches National Park in the very early morning hours of April 17, 2023. As I was, I noticed a couple Lyrid meteors in the northeast sky. I set the camera up in that direction and was able to capture a couple of photos. This is the best one. I then proceeded to get a nice pano photo of the Milky Way over the North Window. Life is good!” Thank you, Nils!
Bottom line: The best time to watch the Lyrid meteor shower is after midnight and before dawn on the morning of April 22. You’ll have a dark and moonless sky then. We hope you see some meteors!
**Predicted peak times and dates meteor showers are from the American Meteor Society. Note that meteor shower peak times can vary. Back to top
The EarthSky team has a blast bringing you daily updates on your cosmos and world. We love your photos and welcome your news tips. Earth, Space, Sun, Human, Tonight. Since 1994.
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