Potentially the best meteor display of the year is coming soon and is scheduled to peak late Wednesday night/early Thursday morning, December 13-14: the Geminid meteor shower.
If you were disappointed by the lackluster showing of last month’s Leonid meteor shower, don’t worry. Geminid meteors are often the most satisfying of all annual showers, even surpassing August’s famous Perseid meteors. Studies of past images show that this shower has a reputation for being rich in both slow, bright, graceful meteors and fireballs, as well as faint meteors and relatively fewer moderately bright objects. Geminids typically encounter Earth at 22 miles (35 km) per second; It has roughly half the speed of the Leonid meteor. Many appear yellowish in color. Some were even seen creating rough or divided roads.
The Geminids take their name from the Gemini constellation Gemini. On the night of this shower’s maximum, meteors will appear to radiate from a point in the sky near the bright star Castor in the constellation Gemini.
Earth moves rapidly through this meteor stream, creating a very broad and disproportionate activity profile. Rates rise steadily for two or three days before reaching a maximum, roughly a quarter of peak strength, then falling more sharply. But Late Geminids tend to be particularly bright. Treacherous precursors may be visible a week or more before maximum, but three nights after peak activity Geminids disappear for almost a year.
Relating to: Meteor showers 2023: When is the next one?
Excellent conditions in 2023
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Geminids perform excellently every year, but 2023 could be classified as a “perfect year.” Last year’s exhibition In contrast, it was seriously compromised by bright moonlight when a bright gibbous moon appeared above the horizon in the late evening and washed out most of the faint Geminid lines with its bright light.
But this year, the moon will be in its new phase on December 12. On peak night, the moon will be a faint crescent, will be low to the west-southwest at dusk, and will set around 5pm on Wednesday evening. This means the sky will be dark and moonless for the balance of the night, providing excellent visibility conditions for the shower.
The Geminids are predicted to reach peak activity at 2 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT), according to Margearet Campbell-Brown and Peter Brown in the 2023 Observer’s Handbook of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. This means that locations from Eastern Europe and Northeast Africa eastward to the longitudes of Central Russia and China are best positioned to catch the peak of the shower, with speeds capable of exceeding 120mph! But maximum rates remain at only marginally reduced levels around the largest for about 6 to 10 hours, so other places (such as North America) should also enjoy some Geminid activity.
In fact, under normal circumstances, on nights of maximum activity, in ideal dark sky conditions, at least 60 or more Geminid meteors can be expected to burst into the sky every hour on average (Light pollution greatly reduces the numbers).
Best views after 22:00
Generally speaking, depending on your location, Gemini begins to rise above the east-northeast horizon around the time evening twilight ends. So, you may see a few early Geminids as soon as the sky darkens. There’s also a good chance we’ll see some “Earth-grazing” meteors. Grazing the Earth are long, bright shooting stars that range from a point near the horizon to even just below it. These types of meteors are very different because they follow long paths almost parallel to our atmosphere.
The number of Geminids begins to appear noticeably higher in the hours after 22:00 local time, because the irradiance of the shower is already quite high in the eastern sky by then. However, the best views come around 2 a.m. when the luminous dots will pass almost overhead. The higher the irradiance of the rain, the more meteors it produces all over the sky.
Pack it up!
But keep this in mind: Watching meteors this time of year can be a long, cold affair. You wait and wait for meteors to appear. If they don’t show up right away and you’re cold and uncomfortable, you won’t be looking for meteors for very long!
Spending a night in a sleeping bag under the stars is a tempting proposition in the summer months, and as a result many holiday campers independently “discover” the August Perseids. But it’s a completely different story for Geminids, who require lying on the ground or in a tall lawn chair for several hours after midnight in December, staring up at the clear sky as radiation cools and temperatures drop since sunset.
The late Henry Neely (1879-1963), who was a popular lecturer for many years at the Hayden Planetarium in New York, once said of watching the Geminids: “Take the advice of a man whose teeth have chattered many a winter’s night – that it is necessary “Wrap yourself in a much warmer way than you think.”
Hot cocoa or coffee can counteract the effects of the cold or provide mild stimulation. It would be even better if you observe it with your friends. This way, you can keep each other awake and cover more of the sky. Give your eyes time to adjust to the darkness before you begin.
Ata is an asteroid
Unlike other meteor showers, the Geminids appear to be produced not by a comet but by 3200 Phaëthon, an active Earth-passing Apollo asteroid with an orbit that brings it closer to the sun than any other asteroid. Therefore, it was named after the Greek legend Phaëthon, son of the sun god Helios.
On the other hand, the Geminids may also be comet debris, as some astronomers think that Phaëthon is really the dead nucleus of a burned-out comet that was somehow trapped in an unusually tight orbit.
If you want to try photographing the Geminids or any other meteor shower, be sure to check out our guide on how to photograph meteors and meteor showers. If you need imaging equipment, consider our best cameras for astrophotography and our best lenses for astrophotography.
Editor’s Note: If you capture a great photo of the Geminid meteor shower that you’d like to share with Space.com and our news partners for a story or image gallery, send images and comments to: spacephotos@space.com.
Joe Rao is an instructor and visiting professor in New York Hayden Planetarium. writes about astronomy Natural History magazine, Farmer’s Almanac and other publications.