Meteor showers to be visible after midnight tonight

A celestial treat is in store for stargazers who can look forward to see fireworks in the form of meteor showers after midnight today.

A celestial treat is in store for stargazers who can look forward to see fireworks in the form of meteor showers after midnight on Sunday night.

HT Image

The shooting stars will start at 12.30am and peak between 3am to 5am. Commonly known as Lyrids meteor showers, they will be visible from the entire northern hemisphere in the constellation of Lyra.

"The best time to watch the shooting stars is between 3am to 5am tomorrow," Science Popularisation Association of Communicators and Educators (SPACE) director CB Devgun said, adding the phenomena can be observed in the northeast to northern directions in the sky.

Observers can expect to see up to 20 "shooting stars" per hour - an average of one every three minutes - at the peak, he said.

However, only brightest of the meteors will be seen as an 85% bright moon may obscure some of the shooting stars.

The meteors have their origin from the Comet C/1861 G1 Thatcher. The velocity of particles entering the earth would be 49km/sec, N Raghunandan Kumar, secretary of planetary society of India said.