'Fireballs' in the Sky: Peak Viewing Times for the Geminids

By Beth Dalbey

The best meteor shower of the year is queuing up for its peak.

The peak times for viewing the Geminids – known as the “fireball” meteor shower because of their frequency and intensity – are late Saturday night into Sunday morning.

Some of the best viewing conditions will be across the East Coast as a sprawling high pressure system sits across the region, leading to clear skies for many areas, accordingto AccuWeather.com meteorologist Andy Mussoline.

On Long Island, the National Weather Service is currently calling for partly cloudy skies on Saturday night, but there’s no rain in the forecast.

Friday night and Saturday morning may offer a sprinkling of meteors, which tend to be brightest and the most prevalent as evening deepens into late night, EarthSky.org says. Skies will be partly cloudy with a chance of flurries on Long Island Friday night, the NWS says.

• Photos of the Geminid meteor shower.

NASA reports that the Geminids are a relatively young meteor shower, with the first sightings occurring in the 1830s with rates of about 20 per hour.

Over the decades the rates have increased, regularly spawning between 80 and 120 per hour at its peak on a clear evening.

Earthsky.org offers 10 tips for watching the year’s most spectacular meteor shower:

1. Be sure you know which days the shower will peak.
2. Find out the time of the shower’s peak in your time zone.
3. Watch on the nights around the peak, too.
4. Don’t take the notion of a radiant point too seriously.
5. Find out the shower’s expected rate, or number of meteors per hour.
6. You must be aware of the phase of the moon.
7. Dress warmly.
8. Bring along that thermos of hot coffee or tea.
9. Bring a blanket or lawn chair.
10. Relax and enjoy the night sky.

If the skies don’t cooperate, there’s one more chance this year to watch meteor showers with the Ursids, which peak Dec. 22-23, NASA says. Depending on cloud cover, darker new moon conditions mean the Ursids will radiate from the bowl of Ursa Minor, which you probably know as the Little Dipper.

If you happen to get pictures of the show, upload them on the Bulletin Board for your neighbors to see. Our platform makes it easy to create a gallery.

More on Patch:

• Cops: 12-Year-Old Boy Struck, Killed by Car Thursday Morning
• State Approves Establishment of Second Area Code for Suffolk County
• Huntington Station Raid Yields Weapons, Cocaine and Cash
• Long Island’s Kinkaid Impresses in First NHL Start for Devils
• Runaway Horse Fatally Struck on Sunrise Highway
• Woman Critically Injured in Greenlawn Crash With School Bus
• DA: Ex-Yankee Torres Sentenced for Sexually Abusing Girl
• Police Seek Suspect Who Forced Man to Withdraw Money From Patchogue Bank
• Packaging the Holiday Spirit at Babylon Elementary