Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Geminid Showers



The Geminid meteor show, arguably the best meteor shower of the year, peaks this week on Dec. 13th and 14th.

The source of the Geminids is a mysterious object named 3200 Phaethon. "No one can decide what it is," says Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office in Huntsville, Alabama.

For the rest of the details, go
here .

I'm definitely staying up for this one because unlike the Leonid showers on 11/18/06, these do seem more promising.

11 comments:

nanc said...

i remember seeing these one morning at about 2:30 or 3:00 while taking my husband to meet up with the guy he was riding to work with out of town.

we were just north of sacramento, california - it was about eight years ago - what a beautiful sight - you couldn't keep track of them there were so many.

Anonymous said...

IMO, the Leonids are nothing but a miniature meteor belt that we pass through during this orbital phase around the sun.

Unknown said...

Is Bruce Willis riding one or dd he already blow them up?

Brooke said...

They're so pretty, aren't they?

Thank goodness for our atmosphere!

Always On Watch said...

I hope that the weather clears up here. Today it is pouring rain, so there will be no meteor-showers show visible.

cube said...

We've got tons of cloud cover. I don't think we'll see much either.

WomanHonorThyself said...

hiya Cube..the dang blogger comments are going to drive me to drink...the beta version wont let ya comment at all unless u have beta!..arrgg!

cube said...

Soon we will all be assimilated into beta.

The Merry Widow said...

Yeah, it's been rainning every once in a while, it's a bummer we have this low moving in. We need the rain, but the barometer drop and the cloud cover...no go.

tmw

Jay Noel said...

It's clear so far here in St. Louis. You will be able to see some even this evening. They said you don't even have to know where to find Gemini, as they will be all over.

The easiest way to find Gemini is to find Orion, and Gemini it to its left.

cube said...

nanc: some years ago we caught a particularly heavy Perseids shower & we gave up counting them there were so many.

phoenix: hope you see them.