The Geminids will illuminate the night sky Monday night into Tuesday morning, and NASA refers to this shower as “one of the best and most reliable” for its bright, fast and abundant meteors.
At its top at 2 a.m, any place you are, the shower can create in excess of 50 meteors per hour, as indicated by EarthSky. Nonetheless, dark skies are ideal for review meteor showers and the moon will be around 77% lit during the peak, so the meteors could be hard to detect.
The moon will start to set and will not interfere as much with the visibility beginning at 2 a.m. to dawn, so everything will work out for the best to pull half an all-nighter. NASA said Geminids can be visible all over the planet, however the Northern Hemisphere will have the best visibility.
For an optimal viewing experience, try not to using a telescope since it would restrict your perspective on the sky. The naked eye is the best instrument to follow these shooting stars. The meteor shower will be sporadic, so get a lounger and plan on sitting outside for some time. While you can’t handle the moon’s brilliance, creating some distance from city lights can assist with visibility, since you’ll keep away from light pollution in the sky.
The Geminids are named for the constellation Gemini, where the meteors seem to come from.
The meteors are debris from the rock comet 3200 Phaethon. Phaethon is difficult to characterize on the grounds that it has characteristics of both a comet and an asteroid, as indicated by NASA. The rock comet orbits especially near the sun and gets its name from a character in Greek mythology character who drove the sun god Helios’ chariot.
NASA will likewise livestream the night sky through its meteor camera at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, beginning at 9 p.m. ET. In the event that waiting around in the December cold after midnight isn’t actually a for you fun time, livestreamed stargazing will be your smartest option.
As indicated by EarthSky’s 2021 meteor shower guide, the Ursid meteor shower will be the next and last of this current year on December 22.
