If you have the time this weekend, especially very early (before dawn) Sunday and Monday, you should definately stay up late or get up early to view the Lyrid meteor shower. It will be peaking this weekend, and although its pretty tame as far as quantity goes, it’ll still be great fun to go get away from the city lights and relax under the stars.
You can expect about a dozen meteors an hour, so if you scan the entire sky, you’ll hopefully see one every 5-15 minutes (+|-). For a real treat, set your camera up on a tripod and take some nice long exposures (minutes a piece if yours allows). Your photos should come out with streams of white arcs from the stars as the earth rotates, and if you catch a meteor, it will be a straight line cutting through some of the arcs. They make for really neat photos.
Earth & Sky has a better article than I could write on the subject, so go check it out for some more pointers and info.
If you want to know when you can catch the more impressive showers, read Watch Meteors Like a Pro in 2007, also by Earth & Sky.
