Sky watch: Lyrid meteor shower hits skies in late April

A few weeks ago, I had just begun one of my popular outdoor night-sky lectures when the audience erupted with gasps and cheers. I wanted to believe that it was my witty repartee that produced their excited reaction, but I knew what had happened: They had seen a brilliant meteor exploding in the sky just over my shoulder.

I'm always amazed to see how surprised people are when they spot a meteor. Bright meteors are not really all that uncommon. In fact, on any clear dark night, the average person should be able to spot three or four of these "falling" or "shooting" stars every hour - if they're paying attention. But then there are times of the year when we can see more of them than usual, and we're treated to what astronomers know as a meteor shower.

The most famous of all showers is most certainly the Perseid shower in mid-August. It's quite a dramatic show, but I suspect it's a favorite because it occurs in midsummer when people are outdoors late at night and can see it conveniently.

There's a shower coming up on the week beginning April 19 as well: the Lyrid meteor shower. The Lyrids reach their best just before dawn on April 22, but stargazers who are outdoors the night before might see a few flashing across the sky.

If the sky is clear, and you're far from the blinding lights of a city, you can expect to see as many as 20 meteors each hour before dawn. You can tell if one is part of the Lyrid shower by tracing its path backward - if it appears to come from the direction of the constellation Lyra, in the northeastern sky during late evening hours, it is almost certainly associated with this shower.

Despite the Lyrids' relatively low numbers, this shower can often surprise. It typically produces bright, fast meteors, and about 15 percent leave behind persistent smoky trains that one can watch with binoculars for many minutes after the meteor itself has disintegrated.

And, on occasion, stargazers are treated to an impressive display of more than 50 per hour, as they were in 1803, 1922 and 1982. Will this happen again in 2010? There's only one way to find out!