“Early Tuesday, watch Geminid meteor shower - msnbc.com” plus 1 more

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Early Tuesday, watch Geminid meteor shower - msnbc.com Posted: 10 Dec 2010 09:41 PM PST CAPE CANAVERAL -- Stay tuned for nature's coming attraction. Early next week, the Geminid meteor shower will make its annual appearance, just in time for Christmas. Astronomers consider it the best meteor shower of the year, with more than 100 meteors streaking through the night sky every hour. The peak of the meteor shower will occur early Tuesday, between midnight and sunrise local time. The show will be best in the Northern Hemisphere, easily visible with the naked eye. The Geminids are actually rocky celestial leftovers. Every December, Earth passes through this stream of debris from 3200 Phaethon, once believed to be an asteroid and now considered an extinct -- or iceless -- comet. The meteors, or shooting stars, can appear anywhere, but always seem to fall from the Gemini constellation, thus their name. For those not willing to stay up late -- or get up early -- there should be a decent showing Monday once the sun sets. Actually, some meteors should be visible in the night sky from Dec. 12 to 16, as long as the sky is clear, according to NASA. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured site: So, Why is Wikileaks a Good Thing Again?. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Geminid Meteor Shower: A Guide to the Big Light Show - AOL News Posted: 13 Dec 2010 02:42 PM PST (Dec. 13) -- Winter stargazers, grab your hat and mittens. The Geminid meteor shower, a dazzling display of shooting stars, is once again making appearances across the evening sky this week. Although the celestial phenomenon technically lasts from Dec. 12 to 16, astronomers say Dec. 13 and 14 is prime viewing time. Geza Gyuk, an astronomer at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, is among the many scientists who believe that today's and Tuesday's Geminid showings will arguably be the most enchanting meteor showers of the year. "The Geminids have been slowly getting better over the past years, making it one of the best showers," Gyuk told National Geographic. "And it has become very reliable, so we can expect a fairly nice show." No Ph.D. in astronomy? No worries. Surge Desk offers a quick Geminid Q&A to get you ready for some stargazing: When is the best time to watch? Those stargazers willing to brave low temperatures and late hours will be rewarded. The peak viewing time "will center on the early morning hours of December 14, between about 2 a.m. and dawn," according to National Geographic. Where should I look for the meteors? The best views will be offered in the Northern Hemisphere (sorry, Antarctica.) The shower will rise over the eastern horizon, so stargazers should face northeast to enjoy the show. How many meteors can I expect to see? According to NASA, "realistic viewing rates" for this year's shower are "50-80 meteors per hour and potential peaks reaching 120 meteors per hour." How does this meteor shower differ from the Perseid meteor shower? Unlike the Perseid meteor shower, Geminid meteors fly by fairly slowly in "long duration streaks" and appear in various colors, according to Astronomy Now's Greg Smye-Rumsby. Is star gazing safe? To put a twist on what the late Kenneth Franklin, former chief astronomer for New York's Hayden Planetarium, once told a concerned sky-gazer, the only danger of watching the Geminid meteor shower is falling asleep in the snow. Follow Surge Desk on Twitter. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured site: So, Why is Wikileaks a Good Thing Again?. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

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