One of the fun things about winter is the night sky. Cold, clear, winter skies are characterized by a lack of humidity and if you live in the country there is very little urban light pollution creating some spectacular opportunities for star-gazing.
December brings a couple of meteor showers to the night skies. The more prolific of the two is the Geminids with as many as 120 to 160 shooting stars per hour. Shooting stars are most often associated with the Earth’s passage thru the debris field of a comet. Gritty debris burns-up as it collides with the upper atmosphere. The Geminids are a bit of a mystery as they are related with an extinct comet which also happens to be a near-earth asteroid named 3200 Phaethon.
The Geminid meteor shower began December 4th and will remain active thru the 17th. It will be producing its peak rate of meteors this Sunday thru Monday evenings.
For the duration there will be a chance of seeing Geminid meteors whenever the shower’s radiant point – found in the constellation Gemini – is above the horizon. The number of visible shooting stars increases as the radiant point rises to its highest point in the night sky.
The New Moon is December 14 so there's no moonlight to spoil the show.
Fingers-crossed for cold and clear night skies.
10 Tips for Watching the Geminids
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