The Geminid Meteor Shower 2014

From December 6-19, Earth passes through the stream of dust scattered along the orbit of asteroid 3200 Phaethon, producing the Geminid meteor shower—named after the constellation Gemini, or the Twins. Why Gemini? Because for observers on Earth, the trails of the meteors seen will appear to converge (at a point called the “radiant”) against the stars of this constellation. Although we know of many meteor showers occurring at different times of year, this is the only one clearly associated with an asteroid rather than with a comet.

Typically, this shower produces a peak of about 80-100 meteors per hour under ideal conditions on the night of the 13th—far more than the usual 4-6 per hour seen on most nights. To optimize your chance of seeing meteors, you should observe on a clear, moonless night (or at least during a moonless time of the night), away from bright lights, and with a view of as much of the sky as possible, so avoid nearby trees or buildings.

The 2014 shower will be somewhat obscured after midnight by the rising of a bright last quarter Moon. However, the Geminids are one of the few showers that can put on a good show before midnight, since its radiant in Gemini rises around 7:00 pm and is above the horizon for most of the night. Geminids are often described as being slow-to-medium in speed, and bright yellow. Early in the evening, when the shower’s radiant is still low in the sky, sharp-eyed observers stand a fair chance of seeing rare earthgrazers—slow-moving meteors that pass east-to-west, skimming tangentially through Earth’s atmosphere and leaving long trails behind them.

Image: Sergiu Bacioiu/Flickr

Bing Quock is the assistant director of the Morrison Planetarium.