Meteor showers peak tonight

MANILA, Philippines - If the skies are clear tonight, Filipinos can watch as many as 40 shooting stars per hour, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) said yesterday.

Pagasa administrator Prisco Nilo said the annual Geminid meteor shower would peak on the nights of Dec. 14 and 15.

“Geminids, one of the most spectacular annual meteor showers, is active from Dec. 6 to 19, but the best time to watch is (at pre-dawn) of Dec. 15,” the weather bureau chief said.

“The best time to look is during the early morning hours between 2 a.m. and dawn,” Nilo said.

“Observers won’t need binoculars or a telescope, the naked eye is usually best for seeing meteors which often streak more than 45 degrees across the sky,” he added.

Pagasa said the radiant of the Geminid meteor shower is located near Castor, one of the two bright stars in Gemini.

Radiant pertains to a point in space from which a meteor shower appears to originate.

According to online weather site www.spaceweather.com, the Geminids are not ordinary meteors.

“While most meteor showers come from comets, Geminids come from an asteroid - a near-Earth object named 3200 Phaethon,” it said.

A meteor shower is a celestial event in which a number of meteors are observed to radiate from one point in the night sky.