In December, the night sky is the place to focus your attention, as the annual Geminid meteor shower will be at its finest on the night of Dec.13, into the morning of Dec. 14.<\/p>\n
According to the International Meteor Organization, the maximum peak of possibly seeing 120 meteors per hour is predicted to occur around 1 a.m., the morning of Dec. 14.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cA 23 per cent waning crescent Moon will rise late into the morning hours, so no big interference this year. This is a weekend event. If cloudy Saturday night, it\u2019s still visible on Sunday night, but the numbers will be reduced,\u201d says The Backyard Astronomer Gary Boyle.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are slow moving colourful meteors generated by the Asteroid (3200) Phaethon and will be memorable to witness, as they burn up in the atmosphere appearing in different directions of the sky. Some very bright fireballs could also be seen,\u201d Boyle notes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Boyle says to start looking around 7 p.m. local time. \u201cBut as the night moves on and the constellation Gemini rises higher over the next few hours, more meteors will be seen.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe brilliant planet Jupiter is up in the northeast around 7 p.m. and out all night long, along with the bright winter stars of Orion \u2013 the Hunter.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The best way to witness this stellar spectacular is to travel out of town to a darker wide-open sky to fully enjoy the show.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Boyle is an astronomy educator and former columnist for the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. He\u2019s also been honoured with the naming of Asteroid (22406) Garyboyle.\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to Boyle, the Geminid meteor shower is one of the best meteor showers of the year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fireballs or brighter meteors, Boyle explains, are really coming from an asteroid. \u201cAn asteroid that\u2019s pretty well a dead comet. It\u2019s really a must-see event.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
There will be another meteor shower again Jan. 4, says Boyle. \u201cAgain, the numbers are pretty high, but the moon might be interfering with that meteor shower.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The sky also features winter constellations, including Orion rising just after sunset. \u201cWhile you\u2019re watching the meteor shower, which is from the constellation Gemini,\u00a0which is to the left, you\u2019re going to see the planet Jupiter, which is very, very bright and near two stars.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Stargazers can use any astronomy phone app to locate where any of the planets are.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the Western sky, once you\u2019ve noticed where to look, you\u2019ll see Saturn \u2013 but you\u2019ll definitely need a telescope to see the rings and some of the moons,\u201d Boyle notes. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Boyle says as of yet there\u2019s nothing huge, in terms of any significance or highlights to come astronomically in 2026. \u201cOf course, comets come and go. We\u2019ve had a couple of bright\u00a0comets over the past couple of months, but who knows what\u2019s coming around.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Right now, the sun is very active with large sunspots, which can be seen online at spaceweather.com<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThese sunspots are huge. They\u2019re going to be producing a lot of northern lights. The sky will just be ablaze with greens and reds.\u00a0Hopefully, we won\u2019t get too many power outages because these huge storms do play with the power grid,\u201d Boyle explains.\u00a0<\/p>\n If you\u2019re interested in exploring the night sky, Boyle says to stay away from big box stores when purchasing a telescope. \u201cThere are reputable telescope dealers across Canada and the U.S. that will sell you quality, solid equipment.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n