Geminid Meteor Shower Peaks This Weekend (WATCH HERE)

Dec 13, 2014 07:58 AM EST | Matt Mercuro

The Geminid meteor shower will start from December 7 and end on December 16.

Called the 'highlight of the meteor shower calendar' by the Met Office, the Geminid shower takes place when Earth passes through the path of asteroid 32000 Phaethon and sees debris left in its trail burn as it reaches Earth's atmosphere.

The meteor showers are usually bright enough to see without a telescope and have long persisting trains.

This year's Geminid meteor shower will peak on December 13th and 14th with as many as 120 meteors per hour, according to Bill Cooke, head of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office.

"Of all the debris streams Earth passes through every year, the Geminids' is by far the most massive. When we add up the amount of dust in the Geminid stream, it outweighs other streams by factors of 5 to 500," said Cooke, according to the space agency.

Cooke said the best time to look outside for the shower is between local midnight and sunrise on Dec. 13 and then during the same time on Sunday, when the constellation Gemini is overhead.

Any bright light will obscure the view, so if you want to watch the show you should find a spot away from urban light.

'You probably want to get outside the city, or to within a dark area within a large park," Andrew Jacob, the Sydney Observatory's astronomy curator said to AAP on Saturday. "You don't need binoculars, just the naked eye."

Jacobs added that the show is the best one of the year and that every minute to two minutes you should see a bright meteor soaring across the sky.

There's no need to look for a specific spot in the sky as the shower will appear randomly in no specific direction in the night sky.

You can also view the meteor show online. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama is hosting a chat session featuring Cooke, from 11 p.m. ET Saturday to 3 a.m. ET Sunday.

NASA also will be providing a live video feed of the night sky.

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