Saturday, December 14, 2013

Geminids Meteor Shower Peaks this weekend

        
This year, 2013, this Meteor Shower will be best from Thursday through Monday

and

the best times to view will be from mid evening until dawn.

However, there is One little problem --

Oh, no, you say.  What is the problem.

Well, there will be a bright moon on Friday, the peak night, so you might have better viewing results on Saturday morning, the 14th,  beginning when the moon sets and continuing until dawn

These 'falling stars' seem to come from the area of the stars Castor and Pollux in the Gemini the Twins Constellation, hence their name, Geminids.

However, according to an article on Kake.com, they actually "come from a small asteroid named 3200 Phaethon, which passes quite close to the sun.  Its trail of dust and debris is what makes up the Geminids."

These are usually very bright and impressive so you still might want to check them out even with the moon making some of them hard or impossible to see.

For information about Meteor Showers, why they occur, and how to best view them HERE'S THE LINK


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