Lyrid meteor shower is all set to set up a show for sky gazers this week. This year, the annual Lyrid meteor shower will peak on the morning of the Earth Day, i.e. April 22. However, it will still be visible for much of the week.
The presence of moon in the sky can be a problem, but Lyrids have been claimed by some to be so bright that moonlight will not hamper the visibility of falling stars.

"People have two choices this year when watching the Lyrids. They can try to watch before moonrise, in late evening on April 21, or they can try to watch in the hours before dawn on April 22, when the moon will be in the sky", said Deborah Byrd, editor of the astronomy and science website EarthSky.org.

The moon is likely to spoil a lot of the show and that is why it will not be wise to expect too much from the event, said Bill Cooke, who directs NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.
NASA will make an attempt to host a live video stream from one of its meteor cameras on Tuesday, if weather permits.

The name of meteor shower has come from its ability to appear to radiate from a point located just to the right of the blue-white star Vega. As a matter of fact, the blue-white star Vega is the brightest light in the constellation Lyra the Harp.

The Lyrids are known as one of the oldest known meteor showers. It has been recorded that stars fell down like rain at midnight at the Chronicle of Zuo, written in China in 687 BC by Qiuming Zuo.

Lyrids falling will take place on Earth Day, which reminds that earth is made of the same stuff as meteors, said Ron Hipschman, a scientist at the Exploratorium, an interactive science museum in San Francisco.