Geminid Meteor Shower Peaks Up During the Super Moon This Week
For those who are preparing themselves for the annual Geminid Meteor Shower events, wanting to spend their whole evening to watch meteor showers, here's some both good and bad news for them.
The good news is, this week is going to be a real bummer for the enthusiastic watcher of Shooting Stars. Because 'December Geminis', the most beautiful & most reliable meteor shower event is going to peak at the sky on dec 13,2016 & dec 14,2016. But, the bad news is at the same time , the last Supermoon of this year is going to take place in the sky.
Supermoon occurs when the moon gets closest to earth (Perigee ), then it looks 30 percent brighter than other full moons. The brightness of the moon will overshadow those meteor showers which makes it almost impossible to watch with naked eyes. The perfect viewing conditions for meteor showers are;
1.The sky should have entirely dark.
2.The sky should be clear. the presence of cloud can restrict the viewing experience.
According to Space.com, the moon will turn full on Tuesday 7:05 p.m EST(Eastern Standard time ). The moon will be situated closer from the lower horn tip of the constellation Taurus, aka The Bull and those Geminis meteors come from the Gemini constellation which is so closer to the Taurus.
Observer's Handbook of the Royal Astronomical Society suggests that the meteor shower will last for 10 hours from the peak time at 7 p.m. Geminid Meteor shower comes from the fragments of 3200 Phaethon. Under the perfect viewing condition , people could witness 120 meteors per hour. At this situation, the number of meteors will be reduced to 40 . However, these meteors will move around 22 miles per second, half the speed of Leonid or Perseid meteors.
For the best viewing experience, NASA recommends that it is better to watch shooting stars before the dawn of Wednesday. Although NASA is also arranging a live streaming session on the internet, so that everyone from anywhere in the world could experience the meteor shower.
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