Put the coffee on and get out your deckchairs , the annual Lyrid shooting star exhibitor is about to take to the night ’s sky .

The Lyrid meteor shower will take place between April 16 and April 25 , with a peak of activeness due in the former hours of Saturday , April 22 . Although star - gazers in the Northern Hemisphere are best situated for consider the meteors , the Southern Hemisphere should be able to catch sight of a few meteors each night between midnight to daybreak .

In a distinctive year you could require to see anywhere from 5 to 20 meteors per hour , however , clouds and a bright Moon will hamper your chance . You do n’t necessitate any binoculars or a scope to see the exhibitioner , just a clear night , dark sky , and some longanimity . As ever , head outdoors at least 30 minute beforehand to let your optic become habitual to the humble - light floor and keep as far away as possible from any hokey lights .

The Lyrids   are one of the older document meteor showers in human history , with disk appearing to talk about the rain shower some 2,700 years ago . In 687 BCE , ancient Chinese writer Zuo Qiuming is consider to have observed the Lyrid meteor , describing it thus " at midnight , stars flow down like rain . ”

On rare occasions , the cascade can have outbursts of up100 meteors an hour . This was read in the US in 1982 , in Japan in 1945 , and Greece in 1922 . However , the Lyrids can be erratic , so do n’t get your hopes up too high .

They are forebode the Lyrids because the radiant of the meteor shower is located in the configuration Lyra . The meteorites make out from debris streaking off the tail ofC/186 G1 Thatcher , a comet that make up a full orbit of the Sun once every 415 years . As the junk drop behind from the comet hits Earth ’s upper atmosphere , the particles disintegrate , burning up and releasing a streak of light . Last time this comet made its closest approach to the Sun was in 1861 , so do n’t carry another sojourn until the year 2276 . However , the meteor showers are   plainly much old than that . One study of the reach of the Lyrid meteors has really suggested the rain shower may have been active forat least a million age .

If you busybodied on the weekend of April 22 then do n’t scratch , the Eta Aquariid meteors   will also be around in former May .