Peak of Geminid meteor shower set to dazzle

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The annual Geminid meteor display is expected to peak on Wednesday night.
With up to 100 meteors per hour visible from a dark site, the Geminids rival the Perseids in August for the title of best meteor display of the year.
The paths of Geminid meteors appear to point back to a spot near the bright stars Castor and Pollux in the constellation Gemini, giving the shower its name.

For observers at mid-northern latitudes, this spot – called the radiant – will be almost directly overhead between 0100 and 0200 local time the night of 13–14 December, when the display should reach its peak. But the entire meteor shower runs from 6 to 18 December.
Observers in the southern hemisphere can spot some Geminid meteors, but will not see nearly as rich a display as those in the northern hemisphere.

Dried-up comet?

Although the meteors will point back towards Gemini, they can appear anywhere in the sky. For the best results, do not ..................


A Geminid meteor streaks across the sky
against a background of star trails in this
long-exposure image taken in 1985
(Image: Jimmy Westlake)

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hellboy99

cool, hope it's not going to be like the Leonid meteor shower, that was a big let down.

User45701

i always read about them then forget about them and juststart watching new tv shows

Flukey

There was lots of fast-moving clouds, but also clear spells in Dublin last night. I didn't look for long, but I did go out a few times and looked from my window. I saw some, but very few.