Geminid Meteor Shower: December 13 & 14!!

Geminid Meteor… by Ken Scott Photography

Looking for some alternative nightlife? EarthSky has everything you need to know about this weekends Geminid Meteor Shower: which peaks tonight & tomorrow during what is looking to be a welcome run of partly clear skies!

The Geminid meteor shower – always a highlight of the meteor year – will peak around the mornings of December 13 and 14, 2018. The Geminids are a very reliable shower if you watch at the peak time of night (centered on about 2 a.m. for all parts of the globe) and if you watch in a dark sky. The meteors tend to be bold, white and quick. This shower favors Earth’s Northern Hemisphere, but it’s visible from the Southern Hemisphere, too. The curious rock comet called 3200 Phaethon is the parent body of this shower.

On a dark night, near the peak, you can often catch 50 or more meteors per hour.

Why are the Geminids best around 2 a.m.? It’s because that’s when the shower’s radiant point – the point in our sky from which the meteors seem to radiate – is highest in the sky. As a general rule, the higher the constellation Gemini the Twins climbs into your sky, the more Geminid meteors you’re likely to see. The Geminids’ radiant point is highest around 2 a.m.

Read on for all kinds of viewing tips and all kinds of info about about this December meteor shower including the chance of seeing an earthgrazer meteor, a slow-moving, long-lasting meteor that travels horizontally across the sky!

Ken took this photo back in December of 2012. He wrote that meteors were “all over the sky” but not where he was pointing his camera at the moment or streaking in frame during that one second it takes his camera to reset between exposures. See more in Ken’s massive Skies Above Album and definitely follow him on Facebook!!

Head over to Michigan in Pictures for more meteors!!