Geminids December 2015: When, how to watch 'King of Meteor Showers' - Is it Over Hyped?
By Jeremy Gray | jgray@al.com
It's called "the king of the meteor showers" and it will be streaking across the skies Sunday night and Monday morning.
The 2015 Geminids meteor shower "is billed as the best because it produces more meteors per hour than other showers," USA Today reported.
"Up to 120 meteors per hour are expected to flash across the skies as the Geminids peak on Sunday night into Monday morning, according to NASA. The space agency said viewers can expect "delightfully dark skies this year" since "the thin crescent moon sets early," according to ABC News.
"You need no special equipment – just a dark, open sky and maybe a sleeping bag to keep warm. Plan to sprawl back in a hammock, lawn chair, pile of hay or blanket on the ground. Lie down in comfort, and look upward," EarthSky.org reports.
"Your local peak will typically be centered at about 2 a.m. local time, no matter where you are on the globe. That's because the constellation Gemini – radiant point of the shower – will reach its highest point for the night around 2 a.m. (your local time). As a general rule, the higher the constellation Gemini climbs into your sky, the more Geminid meteors you're likely to see," that report continues.
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville will host a live tweet chat highlighting the 2015 Geminid meteor shower. This online, social event will occur 11 p.m. EST (10 p.m. CST) Dec. 13 until 3 a.m. EST (2 a.m. CST) on Dec. 14.
To join the tweet chat, visit and follow the Marshall Twitter account.
Click on the following link for more information on NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office.
And for the latest on the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Geminid Facebook event page, visit this page.
Over Hyped?
Comment to article by Steve Dutch:
As a scientist, I get infuriated every time I read the irresponsible hype of meteor showers. 120 per hour! There's one....two...three....29...30...there's another one. That's assuming you see them all, which you won't. You'll see maybe a third if you look toward the radiant. Don't call this a "strong" shower. Strong is 1000 an hour. And there are no predictable showers like that. There are rare meteor storms when we hit especially thick swarms of debris. So when you develop the ability to predict those, then you can wax ecstatic over meteor showers.What's the harm? Well, if people can't trust science to tell them what they can expect to see from their own back yards, why should they believe us about climate change, vaccination or evolution?