This Year The Lyrids Meteor Shower Above Colorado Will Peak On Earth Day In A Celestial Celebration

The Centennial State may just have the most beautiful skies in the world, thanks to such beauty as sunsets over the mountains and starry nights along the Plains (and other places with little light pollution). If you, too, enjoy our beautiful skies, be sure to look up later this month when a Colorado meteor shower may bring an upward of 100 meteors per hour to the state:

Keep your eyes to the skies from April 15th through the 25th, 2021, as EarthSky Communications (which offers “Updates on your cosmos and world”) foresees a Lyrid meteor shower in Colorado’s future, with its peak taking place between moonset and dawn of April 22nd.

Flickr/Rocky Raybell

During the shower’s peak, Coloradans can expect to see an average of 10 to 15 meteors per hour, though Lyrids are also famous for producing an upward of 100 meteors per hour!

Flickr/Mike Lewinski

As per EarthSky, “Those rare outbursts are not easy to predict, but they’re one of the reasons the tantalizing Lyrids are worth checking out,” adding that the shower can be best seen in the northeast each evening at around 10 p.m. via the constellation Lyra.

Bruce McClure and Joni Hall/Wikimedia Commons

If you aren’t sure how to spot the Lyra constellation, don’t worry, as the meteors can be spotted from nearly anywhere in the sky!

Flickr/Scott Butner

Taking place annually, the April Lyrid meteor shower is the result of the long-period Comet C/1861 G1 Thatcher, which sheds its dust and debris this time each year and creates this springtime phenomenon!

Flickr/sugarbear96

To learn more about the Lyrid meteor shower and other upcoming Colorado phenomena, please visit EathSky’s website.

Flickr/NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center

Do you have a favorite place that you would like to see featured on Only in Colorado? Nominate it here! If you need a place to go to watch the Lyrid meteor shower, be sure to check out This Remote Little Westcliffe In Colorado Is One Of The Darkest Places In The Nation.