I'm a huge fan of the Geminid meteor shower. It churns out the most meteors per hour, a fair share of which are Venus-bright fireballs, and you don't have to get up at 3 a.m. to see it.

Geminids stream from a point in the sky called the radiant , located near the star Castor in Gemini. This season Jupiter shines nearby, just a fist below the radiant. That's good to know because if you see a meteor and wonder whether or not it's a shower member, all you have to do is follow its trail backwards. If it points in Jupiter's direction it's almost certainly a Geminid.

Geminids range in size from sand grains to peas. While still in outer space we call them meteoroids , but when they slam into the atmosphere at 78,000 miles per hour and heat up, they generate brief streaks of glowing air call

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