Overview
- Astronomy groups forecast activity from roughly December 7–17, with the maximum expected in the early hours of December 14 and the best viewing the night of December 13–14.
- A waning moon rises late that night at about 2:30 a.m., so moonlight should minimally affect visibility, especially in the second half of the night.
- Peak theoretical rates can reach about 150 meteors per hour under ideal dark-sky conditions, but experts say typical observers should expect only tens per hour depending on darkness and weather.
- Look toward the constellation Gemini, where the radiant lies near Castor and Pollux, and use bright Jupiter as a guide while observing from a dark location away from city lights.
- Geminid meteors are relatively slow at around 35 km/s and often appear bright and yellowish-white, and researchers are still probing how rocky Phaethon produces the shower’s dense dust stream.