Magnificent Geminid meteor shower in Dubai this month

(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) The stars are aligning for this year's Geminid meteor shower to be particularly magnificent. The Geminids produce visible meteors in the night sky from about December 4 to December 16, though the peak of the shower, with as many as 120 meteors visible per hour, is during the night of December 13 and early morning of December 14. The best time to view a meteor shower is in the hours just before dawn.

The peak of the Geminids, which is considered to be one of the most prolific meteor showers of the year, is after dark on December 14.

Perfect conditions ahead for Geminid meteor shower, pairings of moon amd planets

People will able to see Geminid Meteor Shower in addition to viewing several beautiful pairings of the crescent moon with the planets Jupiter and Mars on the morning of December 15 around 4:00am.

What causes meteor showers?

Every year on about the same dates, Earth passes through swarms of rocky particles associated with the orbits of various comets. When these meteoroids encounter Earth's atmosphere at tremendously high speeds - up to far more than 100,000 mph - they burn up from the friction and produce the brief streaks of light we call meteors.

The Geminid meteor shower is nearly 200 years old, according to known records - the first recorded observation was in 1833 from a riverboat on the Mississippi River - and is still going strong. In fact, it's growing stronger. That's because Jupiter's gravity has tugged the stream of particles from the shower's source ? the asteroid 3200 Phaethon closer to Earth over the centuries.

How and Where to Observe

Dubai Astronomy Group is organizing an event on Thursday, December 14, 2017 "Geminids Meteor Shower camp" where people will be trained by a renowned astronomer and view the meteor shower and other celestial bodies like planets, galaxies and deep sky objects with a telescope and laser marking of stars. Also there will be a lecture, demonstrations and Q & A sessions about stars and universe underneath the open air and dark sky.

It is a paid event and .

For best results, you should look slightly away from Gemini so that you can see meteors with longer "tails" as they streak by; staring directly at Gemini will just show you meteors that don't travel very far.

Staff Reporter

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