Lyrids

The Lyrids break the long lull between January's Quadrantids and the showers of late spring. Rates are modest — around 18 an hour at best — but the shower is reliable and occasionally surprises observers with brief outbursts of up to 100 per hour.

Meteors appear to radiate from near Vega, one of the brightest stars in the sky. The parent comet, Thatcher, last passed the Sun in 1861 and won't return for more than four centuries, yet its debris trail still lights up our skies every April.