Perhaps you know that the Geminid meteor shower peaks tonight. The Geminids are one of the best meteor showers of the year, with fall rates that could exceed 100 per hour for observers under dark rural skies.
For best results, apparently the time to start watching is tonight (Dec. 13th) from about midnight until sunrise tomorrow morning. Basically, the procedure is to go outside, lie down, and look up.
Somehow, I doubt many people around here will do the lying down part. In fact, with lows in the teens and winds of 30MPH, I'm not sure I want to go outside at all. I wonder if I can lie down on our dining room floor and watch them through the sky light?
Jesse, shooting star is anethor name for meteor. They are the same thing.Maybe your dad was thinking about the various kinds of meteors. Some result from rocky objects in space striking Earth's atmosphere. Some originate as dust. Some started out as man-made space debris in Earth orbit. These artifacts whether natural or made by humans can all cause a meteor or shooting star when they enter Earth's atmosphere and vaporize due to friction with the air.The real stars never come close to Earth's atmosphere. All real stars are many trillions of miles away.Have fun skywatching!- ES
Posted by: Mhd | September 09, 2012 at 04:26 AM
Val December 14, 2010 8:20 am I'm wondering what is the best time to view this sewhor where I am located at Victoria, Vancouver Island, British Columbia. I would really like to catch this as it is my constellation (Gemini). Thanks for your reply and I appreciate it.
Posted by: Akhtar | September 11, 2012 at 10:06 PM