The Impressive Geminids Meteor Shower Will Be Visible in New Zealand This Month
The spectacular starry event only happens once a year — and it'll be at its peak overnight between December 14 and 15.
Every December, the Geminids meteor shower lights up our skies. Considered to be the most spectacular meteor shower of the year, it's caused by a stream of debris, left by an asteroid dubbed the 3200 Phaethon, burning up in Earth's atmosphere.
The 2021 shower kicked off on Friday, December 3, but it really is just getting started. While the Geminids runs through until Sunday, December 19 this year, it's expected to be at its peak in New Zealand overnight between Tuesday, December 14–Wednesday, December 15. Christmas lights aren't the only spectacle worth peering at this month, clearly.
If you fancy a stint of stargazing, you'll want to look up on Tuesday, December 14 from around 11pm in Auckland, 11:30pm in Wellington, and 12am in Christchurch. The best time to catch an eyeful will be after midnight, when the moon has set and its light will not interfere, but before sunrise.
Some years, you can catch as many as 150 meteors every 60 minutes, so this definitely isn't just any old meteor shower.
NASA, Marshall Space Flight Center, Jeff Dai.
For your best chances, it's worth getting as far away from bright lights as possible. This could be a good excuse to head out of the city to a clear-skied camping spot — and pray for no clouds. To see the meteors, you'll need to give your eyes around 15–30 minutes to adapt to the dark (so try to avoid checking your phone) and look to the northeast.
The shower's name comes from the constellation from which they appear to come, Gemini. So that's what you'll be looking for in the sky. To locate Gemini, we recommend downloading the Sky Map app — it's the easiest way to navigate the night sky (and is a lot of fun to use even on a non-meteor shower night).
If you're more into specifics, Time and Date also has a table that shows the direction and altitude of the Geminids.
The Geminids meteor shower runs from Friday, December 3–Sunday, December 19, and will be at its peak during the night on Tuesday, December 14–Wednesday, December 15. For further details, head to Time and Date.
Top image: A composite of 163 photos taken over 90 minutes during the Geminids by Jeff Smallwood for Flickr.
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