Alrighty, Vancouver! If you weren’t aware, the annual Lyrid meteor shower kicks off this week, running from April 15th until April 29th. According to The Weather Network, the peak shower will land on April 21 or April 22, where you’ll have the chance to see up to 100 shooting stars an hour. To see the Lyrid meteor shower here in Vancouver, you’ve got to escape the lights of the city as best you can.
With that in mind, here are 6 great places to see the Lyrid meteor shower from Vancouver.
Spanish Banks Park
We’re starting things off with easy-to-access options right in Vancouver. And, Spanish Banks is the perfect mixture of convenience and quality. Its location offers unobstructed views of the skies above, and it’s far enough away from downtown to mitigate some of the light pollution.
David Lam Park
Maybe you want to be in the heart of downtown- not a problem. While you’re going to have interference from the highrises around you, David Lam does offer a great vista for stargazing and meteor watching. Plus, the central location does mean a couple of ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ around you, for effect.
Wreck Beach
If you’re willing to brave the stairs and the regulars, it doesn’t get much better than Wreck Beach for watching the skies. The west-facing views practically eliminate immediate distractions from Vancouver’s lights. Instead, it’s just the boats (and there are a lot fewer of them these days) to contend with.
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The annual Lyrid meteor shower is coming up. It’s the shower that always breaks the meteor drought that happens each year from January through mid-April. ☄️
Find out everything you need to know about how to see it: https://t.co/j9gKa2tRsw
📸 NASA/ MSFC/ Danielle Moser. pic.twitter.com/5VgXwsWEpk
— EarthSky (@earthskyscience) April 11, 2021
Burnaby Mountain Park
If it’s good enough for a university observatory, it’s good enough for us. Pretty much anywhere on Burnaby Mountain will offer tremendous viewpoints, but the higher you get the better (safely). We’re lazy, so we’d probably just find a parking lot and hang out near our car.
Cypress Mountain
In addition to having one of the best viewpoints in Vancouver period, Cypress Mountain (and the road up to it) is also a great place to watch the sky. For a double-whammy, we say that you come around sunset, then hang out while the sky gets dark. Sure, it might take a few hours, but the view is worth it.
Porteau Cove
Our final point is definitely outside of the city, but deserves a spot on this list. A short drive from Vancouver gets you incredible views of the Howe Sound from directly on the water. And naturally, its distance from any nearby community makes it a prime spot for stargazing.
And that’s our roundup of some great spots to see the Lyrid meteor shower from Vancouver over the next few days! If you’re looking for more info on stargazing in general, we think that the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada has some great resources.
