The Geminid, Ursid and Quadrantid Meteor Showers Fill The La Mesa Night Sky Into 2023

LA MESA, CA— The annual Geminid meteor shower is upon us in the San Diego area in mid-December, peaking Wednesday, according to the experts. It is followed by the Ursid and Quadrantid showers, which promise a showy December night sky through to the new year.

Often regarded as the best meteor shower of the year due to the sheer number of shooting stars visible during the peak, including multicolored fireballs — if you want to get the full effect, you'll need to steer clear of street lights for the best views.

The showy Geminid meteor shower peaks Tuesday and Wednesday, Dec. 13-14, and runs through Dec. 24. The best views are always under dark skies away from streetlights and other artificial light, and it’s especially important for this beauty of a meteor shower.

Expect to view the meteor shower amid patchy clouds, according to Accuweather. A waning gibbous moon rises just before 7 p.m. Pacific Time Wednesday. At 72 percent illumination, it may wash out some of the meteors. Still, the Geminids are bright and prolific enough that they’re still expected to offer a good show.

The best time to see the Geminids was early Wednesday when the shower’s radiant point — the constellation Gemini — was at its highest point in the sky.

Did you miss it? Don't worry. The Geminids will keep firing shooting stars after the shower reaches its crescendo. And if you can’t or don’t want to stay up most of the night scanning the skies for meteors and fireballs, early-evening skywatchers may catch a rare earthgrazer — that is, a slow-moving, long-lasting meteor traveling horizontally across the sky.

If that’s not possible, just know the number of visible meteors per hour drops to about 30 or 40 in the suburbs, and those in downtown city centers will see almost nothing at all.

Meteors occur when Earth, in its orbit around the Sun, passes through debris left behind by disintegrating comets and space rocks. The Geminid meteors fly as Earth passes through the massive trail of dusty debris left behind by the rocky object named 3200 Phaethon. The dust and grit burn up when they enter Earth’s atmosphere, causing the flurry of meteors.

Phaethon is one of the mysteries of the universe, according to NASA meteor expert Bill Cooke.

“It’s either a near-Earth asteroid or an extinct comet, sometimes called a rock comet,” he wrote in a blog on the agency’s website. “There is another object — an Apollo asteroid named 2005 UD — that is in a dynamically similar orbit to Phaethon, prompting speculation that the two were once part of a larger body that split apart or collided with another asteroid.”

There’s more: “Most shower meteors are shed by comets when their orbits take them into the inner Solar System, but the Geminids may be the debris from this long-ago breakup or collision event. When you consider that the Geminid meteor stream has more mass than any other meteor shower, including the Perseids, whatever happened back then must have been pretty spectacular.”

The first known report of the Geminid meteor shower was in 1833, when it was seen from a riverboat moving slowly on the Mississippi River. The shower produced 10 or 20 an hour back then, but the Geminids have grown in intensity over the centuries as Jupiter’s gravity tugs particles from 3200 Phaethon closer to the Earth.

Here are some tips to get the most out of your nighttime meteor-watching excursion:

• Give your eyes 30 minutes to an hour to adjust to the darkness.
• Lie flat on your back on a thick blanket or hammock, or sit back in a reclining lawn chair, so you can see as much sky as possible. Don’t look directly at Gemini, the shower’s radiant point; you’ll miss some of the amazing tails associated with this wintertime favorite. Instead, look slightly away from the constellation.
• The only thing that makes the Geminid meteor shower take second place to August’s Perseid meteor shower is the late fall chill, so take along some hot drinks and snacks, and prepare to settle in. The Geminids reward patience. They often fly in spurts, but there could be lulls when you see no meteors at all.

More Meteor Showers Through Year's End

If you miss the Geminids, there’s one more chance in 2022 to see meteors.

The Ursid meteor shower runs from Dec. 17 to 26 and always peaks around the winter solstice, which is Dec. 21.

The Ursids are fairly low-key, delivering five or 10 meteors an hour, but on rare occasions they can produce outbursts of 100 or more meteors an hour. The meteors appear to come from the Ursa Minor constellation.

The Quadrantid meteor shower rings in 2023, running from Dec. 26-Jan. 16 and peaking Jan. 3-4.

The shooting star show has the potential to be one of the strongest of the year, but usually falls short because the peak occurs during a short, 6-hour window at a time of year when people don’t want to spend a lot of time outside, according to the American Meteor Society.

Quadrantids fly at a rate of about 25 an hour during the peak. They usually lack persistent trains, but are often rich in bright fireballs.