How to watch the Lyrid meteor shower at its peak

Every April, the Lyrid meteor shower lights up the spring sky. For the best chance to get a glimpse of the annual light show, look up as it reaches its peak on the night of April 22.

For sky watchers in the northern hemisphere, the peak should occur after 10:30 p.m. local time, according to NASA's head of Meteoroid Environment Office, Bill Cooke. In the southern hemisphere, the rate of the shower won't top out until after midnight.

So what can you expect?

"The Lyrids are really unpredictable," Cooke said in a blog post Tuesday. "For the 2015 shower, I'm expecting 15 to 20 Lyrid meteors an hour."

Cooke says you don't need any special equipment is to watch the meteor shower. Seek out a swath of dark, open sky, as far away as you can get from artificial lights. Then get comfy on a lawn chair or a blanket on the ground and look straight up.

For those who can't catch the Lyrids live, a camera at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. will offer a live feed beginning at 10:00 p.m. CDT. During the day, the webcast will show recorded views of past meteor showers.

The Lyrid meteor shower happens when the Earth passes through the stream of meteorite debris from the periodic Comet C/1861 G1 Thatcher. It gets its name from the constellation Lyra, from which it appears to radiate. Lyrid meteor showers have been observed for more than 2,600 years.