Lyrids in Helsinki

The Lyrids meteor shower peaks from Helsinki around Apr 22, with up to 18 meteors per hour under ideal conditions. In 2026 a half moon will wash out fainter meteors, and from Helsinki the radiant in Lyra climbs to 59° above the south-east horizon around 03:40. Local best viewing window: 23:00–03:40 EEST on the peak night, about 4.7 hours of nautical twilight. Scaled to that altitude, the 18/hour headline figure works out to roughly 15 meteors an hour from Helsinki under a genuinely dark sky. At this latitude the sky never gets fully dark that night — the Sun only reaches 17.4° below the horizon — so only the brighter meteors will show. Tonight: unbroken cloud; conditions are as poor as they get.