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\n\t\t\t\tThe best meteor shower of the year peaks today! Look for shooting stars this morning or evening, originating from Gemini the Twins.\t\t\t<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tThe Geminid meteor shower peaks in the U.S. during the late evening hours of December 13. Expect to see up to 30 shooting stars per hour from a dark site.
Credit: Astronomy magazine: Roen Kelly\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
The Geminid meteor shower is predicted to peak on December 13th, potentially yielding over 100 meteors per hour, coinciding with a waning crescent Moon.
\nThe shower’s radiant is located near the star Castor within the constellation Gemini, with Jupiter also visible nearby at a magnitude of \u20132.6.
\nOptimal viewing for meteors is suggested during the pre-dawn hours, although high rates are also anticipated during the moonless evenings of December 13th and 14th.
\nThe debris stream responsible for the Geminid meteor shower originates from the near-Earth asteroid 3200 Phaethon.<\/p>\n
Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full\u00a0Sky This Week<\/a>\u00a0column.\u00a0<\/p>\n December 13: Uranus meets a background star<\/a><\/p>\n The Geminid meteor shower peaks today with a waning Moon in the sky. Widely regarded as the best meteor shower of the year, the Geminids will produce more than 100 meteors per hour during its peak. Although you may not see quite this many, you can still expect to see a good show if you\u2019re willing to brave the cold and step outside.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Geminids\u2019 radiant is located near the bright star Castor in Gemini the Twins. Jupiter is also nearby this year, shining at magnitude \u20132.6. The best time to watch for shower meteors is early in the morning in the hours before dawn; at this time, you\u2019ll be standing on the leading edge of Earth as it rotates, moving into the stream of debris that produces the meteors we see. That debris was left behind by the near-Earth asteroid 3200 Phaethon<\/a>, whose 1.4-year orbit is much like that of a more traditional comet and brings it within the orbit of Earth, sometimes passing close to our planet.\u00a0<\/p>\n The heads of Gemini stand nearly 75\u00b0 high in the southwest around 3 A.M. local time, with Jupiter to their left. Castor is on the right as you look up at the sky at this time, with the Geminids\u2019 radiant just to the lower right of this star. Once you\u2019ve found the radiant\u2019s location, start scanning the sky some 40\u00b0\u201360\u00b0 on either side of this region \u2014 this is where you\u2019ll see meteors with the longest trains as they streak away from Gemini and shoot across the sky.\u00a0<\/p>\n Although morning will be the best time to watch for meteors, evening observers will likely catch some of the show as well. Because Gemini rises around 6 P.M. in the evening, the radiant has climbed above 40\u00b0 in the east by 10 P.M. local time, now with Gemini lying on its side and Castor above Pollux in the sky. Meteor rates should be high both the evening of the 13th and 14th, and without any Moon in the sky at all. \u00a0<\/p>\n Sunrise:\u00a07:14 A.M.
Sunset:\u00a04:35 P.M.
Moonrise:\u00a02:14 A.M.
Moonset:\u00a01:10 P.M.\u00a0
Moon Phase:\u00a0Waning crescent (20%)
*Times for sunrise, sunset, moonrise, and moonset are given in local time from 40\u00b0 N 90\u00b0 W. The Moon\u2019s illumination is given at 10 P.M. local time from the same location.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Back to Article List The best meteor shower of the year peaks today! Look for shooting stars this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":184368,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[85,46,2928,141,43844,145],"class_list":{"0":"post-184367","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-observing","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-sky-tonight","13":"tag-space"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}