Experts said the best time to gaze at the iconic shower will be in the early morning darkness Friday or Saturday."The Moon rises two to three hours after midnight on those dates, which will blot some of the fainter meteors from view," the planetarium said online.
The planetarium also suggested that viewers should stray away from city lights and face east while looking up. Since showers can stretch across the sky, binoculars or telescopes are not needed. According to the American Meteor Society, the meteors are"caused by streams of cosmic debris called meteoroids entering Earth's atmosphere at extremely high speeds on parallel trajectories."
The society noted that both the Lyrids, peaking this week, and the eta Aquariids, peaking May 4-5, showers are some of the most visible, should the time and moonlight conditions allow.