More shooting stars than usual to be visible over next two nights

Admiral Vasile Urseanu Astronomical Observatory of Bucharest has announced that on Tuesday and Wednesday nights those who look up to the skies will be able to see more shooting stars than normally.

"On the nights of April 21/22 and 22/23, all those who look up to the skies will see more shooting stars than normally. The Lyrid meteor shower is ongoing, and on those nights it will reach its maximum. Our planet passes through an area where comet C/1861 G1 (Thatcher) passed, and the dust in its tail will burn in the atmosphere. This meteor shower is one of the oldest observed, with its first observation by the Chinese 2,600 years ago, in the year 687 BC. To see meteors you do not need astronomical instruments. You only have to look up to the skies, sit comfortably, for at least an hour, sometime between midnight and sunrise. You do not have to look a certain direction, because meteors can appear in any direction," reads a post on the Facebook page of the observatory.

According to the post, the meteor shower is active between April 16 and 25, and the most meteors observable with the naked eye in ideal conditions is 18, tonight and next night.

"In 2020, the light of the Moon will not spoil the observations, because the Moon is in a new moon phase. It is best to observe the sky after midnight until morning (maybe from the window) and choose an area of the sky to look at it continuously," reads the post.