How to get the best view of the Geminid meteor shower in Australia
By Anna Salleh
ABC Science
Topic:Astronomy
12m ago12 minutes agoWed 11 Dec 2024 at 7:00pm
Geminid meteor streaking across the evening sky.
There will be slim window this year to catch this year's Geminid meteor shower given an almost full Moon. (David Finlay/clearskiestv)
Australia's top meteor shower, the Geminids, will grace our skies again this weekend.
The annual shower, which is formed when the Earth moves through the debris of a weird asteroid called 3200 Phaethon, peaks in the early hours of Saturday, December 14.
Keen stargazers might also catch some meteors in the early hours of Friday and Sunday if you know where — and most importantly — when to look.
"This is a meteor shower that in a normal year will give you the most meteors per hour. They're the strongest annual shower," says Jonti Horner, an astronomer at the University of Southern Queensland.
But this year, skywatchers will have to contend with a Moon that threatens to outshine this much-anticipated celestial event.
That means there's a very small window to catch the shower at its best an hour or two before sunrise when the Moon is sinking below the horizon into the twilight.
A nearly full moon in a cloudy sky.
Apart from possible clouds, a key challenge in viewing this year's Geminids is a nearly full Moon. (Getty Images: VW Pics/Contributor)
Still, Professor Horner remains confident it will be possible to see a good show.
"It's not the best year to see them but all is not lost," he says.
Even if the meteors are trickier to see, there is also a stunning celestial line-up featuring Mars, Jupiter and the giant red star Betelgeuse in the constellation of Orion aka The Saucepan, amateur astronomer Ian Musgrave adds.
"It will be a beautiful sky," he says.
Here's the lowdown on what to expect of this year's Geminids, and how best to see them.
Where do I look to see the meteor shower?
The meteor shower can be seen from anywhere in Australia (as long as there aren't clouds) but the further north you live, the better.
The Geminids appear to come from a point in the sky called the radiant just below a bright star called Pollux in the constellation Gemini.
Don't worry if you don't know your stars; you'll find Pollux sitting between Jupiter and Mars this year.
Sky map showing position of Geminids meteor shower, Jupiter and Mars on 14 December 2024.
Position of Geminids meteor shower from Sydney at 3.00 am AEDT Saturday 14 November. (Stellarium/ABC)
The radiant sits higher above the horizon the further north you are.
"The higher in the sky the radiant gets, the better your view will be," Professor Horner says.
The stream of meteors will be more front-on and more of them will hit any one area of the sky in the north of Australia compared to locations further south.
So places around the latitude of Darwin will see higher rates of meteors than those in Tasmania.
What time should I go out to watch the meteor shower?
The best time to see it will be in a little window starting an hour before the Moon sets.
Use the following moonset times as a guide (times are local time zones):
Adelaide – 4:18am
Brisbane – 3:08am
Canberra – 4:03am
Darwin – 4:43am
Hobart – 3:16am
Melbourne – 4:14am
Perth – 3:31am
Sydney – 4:00am
You need dark skies to get the best view of the shower, although it is still possible to see some bright ones from urban areas.
But 2024 brings the extra challenge of a nearly full Moon that will make it difficult to catch the meteors for most of the night.
"The moonlight is so bright it hides all but the brightest meteors," Professor Horner says.
"It's best to look in the early hours of the morning before dawn rather than looking before midnight."
Even after the Moon has set you will still see some meteors, but they will compete with the sky getting lighter from the rising Sun.
"Keep watching until you feel that the sky is too bright for you to see too many more," Professor Horner says.
How many meteors will I see?
The rate of meteors you see will depend on when you look exactly.
Saturday morning (December 14) will be the best time to see the show, with second choice being Friday morning (December 13).
The smallest window to catch the Geminids will be Sunday morning (December 15), which is when the Moon will be completely full, and sets later than on the other nights.
The table below gives estimates for what you can expect to see in clear dark skies at different latitudes of Australia, allowing for the angle of the radiant and some light coming from the Moon low in the sky.
These rates also assume you allow yourself time to adapt your eyes to the night sky.
Tips on how to spot the meteor shower
Professor Horner's advice is to observe for at least an hour.
"Everyone will be different. You might want to get up really early and go back to sleep after the show or get up later and stay up."
Ideally, he says, you'd get up 30 to 60 minutes before the Moon sets, then watch until the sky gets too light.
The actual peak of the shower will happen during daytime on Saturday morning, so meteor numbers will increase until then**,** but only the very bright ones will be visible once the Sun starts to lighten the sky.
Here are some other recommendations for watching the show:
Choose a site that has as little artificial light as possible.
When you first get up, look at the darkest part of the sky to get your night vision. Avoid torchlight, headlights or the light from you phone, as this will make it harder for your eyes to adapt to the dark.
Choose an unobstructed view of the horizon.
If the Moon is still up, try to block its direct light behind a tree or other object.
Take something to lie on when you are stargazing to save your neck.
Allow your eyes to wander. Meteors may start their "burn" some distance from the radiant.
Geminid meteor shower in Northern Hemisphere.
The higher the radiant the better the show. This image of the Geminids comes from the Northern Hemisphere where the radiant rises higher than in the Southern Hemisphere. (Getty Images: Diana Robinson Photography)
Science in your inbox
Get all the latest science stories from across the ABC.
Your information is being handled in accordance with the ABC Privacy Collection Statement.
Posted12m ago12 minutes agoWed 11 Dec 2024 at 7:00pm
Copy link
X (formerly Twitter)