Geminid meteor showers: How to watch during weekend’s peak
The meteor shower that NASA calls “one of the best and most reliable” of the year is continuing this weekend, but it will have to compete with the moon.
The Geminid meteor shower peaks early Saturday morning, expected to reach 120 meteors an hour. Because of the bright moon, though, it’s likely that viewers won’t see more than about 20 an hour.
The shower starts around 9 or 10 p.m. and will peak around 2 a.m. Viewers are advised to find the darkest place they can and give their eyes 20 to 30 minutes to adjust before they start skywatching in earnest. “Lie flat on your back with your feet facing south and look up, taking in as much of the sky as possible,” NASA’s meteor webpage advises.
Geminids are known for being bright, fast and colorful, with a yellow or green tinge.
The competition is the moon, just past full. It will rise around 6:30 p.m. Friday in the Bay Area and set at 9:36 a.m. Saturday. Dubbed “the Cold Moon,” it was the last full moon of the decade.
Unlike most meteor showers, which are created by comet debris, the Geminids come from an asteroid known as 3200 Phaethon.
Though the Geminids have been recorded each December since 1862, it was not until 1983 that Phaethon was discovered. It’s small, barely 3 miles across, and astronomers aren’t sure of its true nature, with some speculating that it’s a dead comet or a “rock comet,” NASA says.
Astronomer Fred Whipple determined that debris from Phaethon is what we’re seeing during the Geminid showers.