STARGAZERS have not one but TWO celestial displays to look forward to in the coming days.
The Lyrids meteor shower and a full pink moon will both grace night skies above the U.S. and U.K. this week.
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Lyrids meteor shower
The dazzling Lyrid meteor shower is set to begin on April 14 and you can spot the shooting stars throughout this month.
This year’s showing continues until April 30 and is due to peak on the night of April 22, when about 18 “shooting stars” will appear per hour.
This week, you’re only going to see a few sporadic meteors.
The Lyrids happen each April and occur when Earth’s orbit takes it through a comet’s tail.
The meteor shower is made from falling debris from the comet Thatcher.
It gets its name from the Lyra constellation as sometimes the meteors look like they’re radiating from a place near that location.
However, you don’t necessarily need to look in a certain area as the meteors can appear all over the sky.
The Lyrid shower is one of the oldest known, with records of visible meteors going back 2,700 years.
The best time to spot the meteors is early in the morning or in the evening before the moon rises.
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Pink Moon
This year’s Pink Moon will be visible on the evening of April 16, kicking off about half an hour before sunset at 8.27 p.m.
It should look bright and full in the sky but won’t necessarily be pink.
The practice of naming full moons dates back to Native American culture.
Tribes kept track of the seasons with distinct names for each month’s full moon.
Because a moon month is slightly shorter than our calendar months, the dates of the full moons shift slightly from year-to-year.
But months they appear in stay the same, and every year we see a Pink Moon in April.
The term comes from the moss pink herb, or wild ground phlox flower, which is widespread by spring.
Other names for this particular orb include the Full Sprouting Grass Moon, the Egg Moon or the Full Fish Moon.
You shouldn’t necessarily expect it to look pink – in fact, it will look much like any other full moon.
Note down April 16 as the evening to look for the Pink Moon but expect it to look large for a few days around this date.
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This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk
