Look up! Here comes the Lyrid meteor shower

The Lyrids, April's top meteor shower, is expected to peak over the next couple of nights.

The best time to see the shower will be just before dawn on Wednesday, which is also Earth Day, and on Thursday, according to Slooh.com, an astronomy website.

How many meteors will be visible? "The Lyrids are really unpredictable," said Bill Cooke, who directs NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. "For the 2015 shower, I'm expecting 15 to 20 Lyrid meteors an hour," he said.

The moon will appear only as a crescent, so its light shouldn't disrupt the view. Plus, the moon will have long set before the meteor show begins.

No special equipment is needed to watch a meteor shower, according to NASA. Simply find a dark, open sky away from artificial lights, lie down comfortably on a blanket or lawn chair and look straight up.

The Lyrids are bits and pieces of debris from Comet Thatcher and have been seen each April for more than 2,600 years, making them one of the oldest known meteor showers. In mid-April each year, Earth runs into the stream of debris from the comet, which streaks the nighttime sky with the Lyrid meteors.

The meteor shower lasts from roughly April 16-26 each year, but it is best seen on only about two nights.

This shower is called the Lyrid since it seems to radiate from the constellation Lyra the Harp, near the star Vega, according to EarthSky.com.