The Lyrid meteor shower opens the season. Here’s how to watch | CNN

After a more than three-month meteor shower drought, you can finally look to the skies again for a cosmic display. The Lyrid meteor shower is expected to peak, or reach its maximum activity, on Wednesday around 4 p.m. ET, during daylight hours for much of North America, according to the American Meteor Society. The early-setting, waxing crescent moon will provide a perfectly dark sky in the evening. Onlookers in the Northern Hemisphere will get the best chance to view the celestial show from Tuesday night until dawn Wednesday morning, according to EarthSky. All the eclipses, supermoons, meteor showers and planets to spot in 2026 “Toward dawn the source of the meteors near the constellation Lyra will be overhead for the Northern Hemisphere, whereas below the equator it is very low in the northern sky so a lot of their meteors will be blocked by the horizon,” said Robert Lunsford, fireball report coordinator with the American Meteor Society. Lyrid meteors radiate from the star Vega in the constellation Lyra, from which this shower gets its name. It’s easy to spot Vega, even with city lights, as it’s one of the brightest stars in the sky. Considered a medium strength shower, t

Apr 21, 2026 → Apr 21, 2026