Lyrids

The Lyrids (LYR) are a meteor shower lasting from April 16 to April 26 each year. The radiant of the meteor shower is located in the constellation Lyra, near this constellation's brightest star, Alpha Lyrae (proper name Vega); hence they are also called the Alpha Lyrids and sometimes the April Lyrids. Their peak is typically around April 22 each year. The source of the meteor shower is particles of dust shed in the cometary tail generated by the periodic Comet C/1861 G1 Thatcher. The Lyrids have been observed for the past 2600 years.

The shower on May 22, 687 BC (proleptic Julian calendar) was recorded in Zuo Zhuan, which describes the shower as "On day xīn-mǎo of month 4 in the summer (of year 7 of King Zhuang of Lu), at night, fixed stars are invisible, at midnight, stars dropped down like rain." (夏四月辛卯 夜 恆星不見 夜中 星隕如雨)

The shower usually peaks on around April 22 and the morning of April 23. Counts typically range from 5 to 20 meteors per hour, averaging around ten. As a result of light pollution, observers in the country will see more, observers in the city fewer. Nights without a moon in the sky will reveal the most meteors.

Lyrid meteors are usually around magnitude +2. However, some meteors can be brighter, known as "Lyrid fireballs", cast shadows for a split second and leave behind smokey debris trails that last minutes.

Occasionally, the shower intensifies when the Earth passes through a thicker part of the dust trail, resulting in a Lyrid meteor storm. In 1982, amateur astronomers counted 90 Lyrids per hour. A stronger storm of up to 700 per hour occurred in 1803, observed by a journalist in Richmond, Virginia:

"Shooting stars. This electrical phenomenon was observed on Wednesday morning last at Richmond and its vicinity, in a manner that alarmed many, and astonished every person that beheld it. From one until three in the morning, those starry meteors seemed to fall from every point in the heavens, in such numbers as to resemble a shower of sky rockets ..."