Geminids 2009

The Geminids is one of the finest, and probably the most reliable, annual meteor shower. Activity exceeds 100 meteors per hour around December 14, with meteors radiating from a point near Castor in constellation Gemini. Geminids are slow, bright and occasionally colorful. Many observers consider the shower to be more spectacular than the famous Perseids in August, but the Geminids are less widely known because of the cold and often clouded December nights in the northern hemisphere.

This year the peak is expected in the morning of December 14 (5h00 UT), coinciding with a perfect new Moon. Many tens of meteors per hour will be visible in the nights surrounding December 14, with highest rates occuring in the hours after local midnight when the radiant reaches its highest altitude in the sky. More information on the observing conditions can be found in the shower calendar.

An electronic report form is available to submit your visual observations, which will automatically be included in a ZHR activity graph. Please report short counting intervals throughout December 13-15, preferably 10 to 20 minutes, even when the activity appears low!