How to watch the Geminids ‘rock-comet’ meteor shower

One of the most unusual and spectacular meteor showers of the year — the Geminids — is reaching its peak Friday night and Saturday morning, and although the nearly-full moon may spoil a bit of the view, it's still worth getting out to see it, since this meteor never fails to impress.

The peak of the Geminid meteor shower is expected at 5:45 UTC on Saturday, December 14th, which is roughly 12:45 a.m. Eastern Time. However, you don't need to be outside at exactly that time to see it. The meteor shower actually goes on between December 4th and 17th, so it's happening right now, but when it reaches its peak, it will be producing up to 120 meteors per hour through the sky. The shower appears to stream out of the constellation Gemini, which is up all night long, so the shower will be going on all night. The only limitations for viewing will be cloudy skies, excessive light pollution, and the moon. You can check your local conditions at the Clear Sky Chart website (click here).

If you have good conditions and head outside for a look, you don't need to find Gemini in the sky or track along with it as it crosses the sky. The best way to see as many meteors as possible is just to look straight upward. Also, given how cold it's been across pretty much all of North America lately (and will continue to be on Friday night/Saturday morning), be sure to bundle up, bring along some friends and/or family for company, and maybe take along a thermos of coffee or hot chocolate.

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The reason the Geminids are so unusual is that, unlike other meteor showers, which are formed from the dusty debris trail of an icy comet, this one is from the trail left behind by an object called 3200 Phaethon. This 5 kilometre-wide asteroid passes so close to the sun in its orbit that tons of dust and debris get blasted off of it, turning it into a rock comet.

The people at Science@NASA put together this great video talking about 3200 Phaethon and the resulting meteor shower:

Good luck, stay warm and happy skywatching!

(Image and video courtesy: NASA)

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