How to watch
01
Find a dark site. Light pollution is the biggest enemy of meteor watching. Even moving 20–30 km outside a city can double or triple the number of meteors you see. Check the Light Pollution Map for your area.
02
Let your eyes adapt. Your eyes take at least 20 minutes to reach full dark adaptation. Avoid looking at phone screens. If you must use a light, use red light, which does not destroy night vision.
03
Lie back and look up. Don't stare at the radiant — look 40–50° away from it, toward a dark area of sky. Meteors appear all over the sky; they just trace back to the radiant when you follow their paths.
04
Dress for cold. The peak is in December. You will be lying still outdoors for potentially hours. Wear more layers than you think you need. A sleeping bag on a reclining chair is the classic setup.
Why the Geminids are special
Most annual meteor showers are caused by Earth passing through the debris trail left by a comet. The Geminids are unusual: their parent body is 3200 Phaethon, a rocky asteroid with an unusually elongated orbit. The shower grows stronger every year as Phaethon's debris stream gradually spreads, and is now consistently the richest annual shower in terms of total numbers.
Geminid meteors enter the atmosphere at about 35 km/s — slower than the Leonids (71 km/s) but fast enough to produce vivid streaks. Many are bright fireballs, and some leave persistent green or yellow trains.