12/13/2024 – 12/14/2024
Bummer! A nearly full moon will interfere with viewing of this show. Plonk yourself somewhere dark after midnight and you might still see some good shooting stars.
The bold, bright white and slow moving Geminids give us one of the Northern Hemisphere’s best showers. They’re also visible, at lower rates, from the Southern Hemisphere. The meteors are plentiful, rivaling the August Perseids.
You can watch the usually reliable and prolific Geminid meteor shower from evening December 13, with the best views probably just before or around midnight. Under a dark sky with no moon, you might catch 120 Geminid meteors per hour.
Most meteor showers are the result of us passing though comet trails. These meteors are the debris left behind by an *asteroid* known as 3200 Phaethon, discovered in 1982. The shower runs annually from December 7-17. Meteors will radiate from the constellation Gemini, but can appear anywhere in the sky.
