The Geminid Meteor Shower Peaks Wednesday Night

The always impressive Geminid Meteor Shower peaks Wednesday night!

Mainers look up over the next few nights! The Geminid Meteor Shower peaks Wednesday (December 13) into the weekend! This is one of the most reliable meteor showers, and easily seen.

Most meteor showers are best seen in the predawn hours. However, what makes the Geminids special is its one of the few meteor showers that you can clearly view before midnight. According to Space.com, around midnight, under clear skies, you could see 100-to-120 Geminids per-hour.

The best viewing is in a very dark location, away from any light pollution.

The "Gems" create long, bright, streaks in the night sky. This is because they hit Earth's atmosphere at a relativity slow speed, about 79,200 MPH. That's compared to the speed of shooting stars produced by the last major meteor shower, the Orionid Meteor shower. Those bad boys zip into our atmosphere at around 147,600 MPH!

The Geminid Meteor Shower will wrap up Friday. However, throughout the weekend you may see a few stray shooting stars around midnight.