What are Meteor Showers
Meteor showers occur when the Earth moves through the debris left by comets or in some cases asteroids. Most meteors are only the size of a grain of sand or smaller but they produce a lot of light as they burn up due to friction– hitting the atmosphere anywhere from around 40,000 kph to 260,000 kph.
There are 112 identified meteor showers and some routinely produce tens or hundreds of meteors per hour. Occasionally rare meteor storms can produce thousands of meteors per hour.
One of the biggest misconceptions with meteor showers is that you need to look in a certain part of the sky to see these meteors often called ‘shooting stars’, when the opposite is true.
During the peak of a meteor shower, meteors are visible in all areas of the sky, not just near the radiant point.
You want to get as much sky in your field of view as possible. My favorite approach to meteor viewing is a backyard trampoline or banana lounge and just look up!
This is where to find the Lyrids next week from Stellarium free software.
