As we enjoyed the spectacular meteor shower of orionids in October, Now we going to have one more in the name of Geminids .
The Geminid meteor shower peaks this week, so hope for clear skies that will let you see a beautiful show of green fireballs on Thursday and Friday.
The Geminids are considered one of the best meteor showers every year because the individual meteors are bright, and they come fast and furious: This year, there will be more than 1 per minute, reaching 100 meteors per hour. Under light-polluted skies, fewer meteors will be visible.
This will be the last and strongest meteor shower of the year, according to NASA.
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.
Although the Geminid shower is known for its “shooting stars,” the number of meteors visible depends on the time and how dark it is. There will be fewer of them earlier in the evening, but the shower should hit a maximum of about 100 per hour around 2 a.m., NASA said. For those in the suburbs, expect about 30 to 40 per hour. And if you’re in a city like New York, San Francisco or Atlanta, you probably won’t see anything.
Why at 2 A.M.?
The best time to view the Geminids is around 2 a.m. local time, The moon will be first quarter, so it will set around midnight; there will be no moonlight to interfere with the Geminids this year.”
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.
The Geminid meteor shower is nearly 200 years old, according to known records — the first recorded observation was in 1833 from a riverboat on the Mississippi River — and is still going strong. In fact, it’s growing stronger. That’s because Jupiter’s gravity has tugged the stream of particles from the shower’s source, the asteroid 3200 Phaethon, closer to Earth over the centuries.
When to see them?
The meteors tend to peak about 2 a.m. your local time wherever you’re observing from, but can be seen as early as 9-10 p.m.
Where to look at ?
The Geminids, as their name implies, appear to emanate from the bright constellation Gemini (the twins). To find Gemini in the Northern Hemisphere, look in the southwestern sky for the constellation Orion, which is easy to spot by the three stars in the hunter’s “belt.” Then look just up and to the left of Orion to see Gemini, high in the southwestern sky. In the Southern Hemisphere, Gemini appears to the lower right of Orion and both will hang in the northwestern sky.
Although the meteors will appear to stream away from Gemini, they can appear all across the sky. For best results, you should look slightly away from Gemini so that you can see meteors with longer “tails” as they streak by; staring directly at Gemini will just show you meteors that don’t travel very far.
Where do they come from?
The Geminids are associated with the near-Earth object 3200 Phaethon, an asteroid that may have undergone a collision with another object in the distant past to produce the stream of particles that Earth runs into — creating the meteor shower.
The asteroid orbits the sun every 1.4 years. It occasionally comes close to Earth (at a safe distance) and also passes very close to the sun, inside of Mercury’s orbit and only 0.15 astronomical units from the sun. (An astronomical unit is the distance between the sun and the Earth: about 93 million miles or 150 million kilometers.)
Rocks in space that are about to collide with Earth’s atmosphere are called meteoroids. Those that streak through the atmosphere are called meteors, and if they reach the ground (which won’t happen with the Geminids, as the particles are too small to survive the trip) the rocks are called meteorites.
How to get the best view?
As we all know, Hunting for meteors, like the rest of astronomy, is a waiting game, just make yourself comfortable the best thing you can do is lie back in a cosy position and try to take in the entire night sky at once.
They can be seen with the naked eye so there’s no need for binoculars or a telescope, though you will need to allow your eyes to adjust to the dark.
“The Geminid will appear to break out from a radiant point near the constellation of gemini” this is what all we think, but there will be no need to find the constellation because the shooting stars will zip by too fast for you keep track.
Instead you just find a quiet, dark spot devoid of any sources of light.
Try to avoid urban areas, roads and street lamps which could under your viewing experience.
Just remember your eyes might take anywhere from 20 to 30 minutes to completely adjust to the dark.
So, cheers to all stargazers, sky watchers, astronomy lovers and the explorers, don’t miss this out and don’t forget to remind your friends.
We are going to share the live streaming of Geminid Meteor showers in our official Facebook page.
https://www.facebook.com/TheOctoberSky/