Don’t miss the Lyrid Meteor Shower TONIGHT!

Peaking tonight (23rd April), the exciting Lyrid Meteor Shower is set to continue to light up the night’s sky with its truly spectacular display of shooting stars, and you’re in prime position if you’re staying with us here in our holiday cottage complex, Devon. Thought to be the oldest-known meteor shower, the Lyrid Meteor show is set to be an especially good one this year. This is largely down to the fact that the moon is currently a waxing crescent, which means the moon will be slender and 1/15th of the brightness of a full moon, resulting in the sky being darker than usual. The Lyrids have been observed in April for the past 2,600 years, and are the strongest annual shower of meteors. These meteors are debris shed from a larger Comet, which come into contact with the upper atmosphere at over 100,000 miles per hour! This results in the debris evaporating, creating the streaks of light we see illuminating the sky. There are several ways to maximise the number of meteors a person may be able to spot. Ideal conditions to get a sighting would mean being in a place as dark as possible, with little light pollution and as clear skies as possible, so being in the countryside in North Devon is ideal! The great thing about this meteor show is there’s no need for telescopes or binoculars, and there is a chance you might spot between 10 and 20 meteors per hour. Occasionally, these average numbers will greatly escalate, and this year may well be one of those years, so keep your eyes up on the skies! Image courtesy of theilr, under Creative Commons.