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December supermoon to rise at peak of annual meteor display

Watch it live above. With supermoon out all night, it is likely that Geminids shower that produces an average 120 meteors per hour will be subdued by “five to ten-fold, according to NASA”.

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The best meteor shower in the southern hemisphere this year is happening tonight. Recurring meteor showers occur when Earth passes through a trail of debris left behind by a comet, asteroid or other space rock.

This next one comes with an actual meteor shower, so fingers crossed this one will be off the chain. As of noon satellite images showed clear skies across much of ME but it’s going to be a race to see if the clouds make it into the area before moonrise this evening. That way you should be able to catch at least the brightest meteors zipping overhead. Usually when the shower peaks, sky gazers can see a dozen Geminids per hour. Those who would like to witness the last full moon of the year will be delighted as the December supermoon will grace the sky all night until dawn.

Sky gazers will be in for another celestial spectacle, and it is the third and the final episode of supermoon of 2016. While both sky events on their own would offer stupendous views, the timing means that meteor-watchers will have a challenge on their hands.

A meteor shower is expected to light up Perth skies on Tuesday and Wednesday night. According to the Observer’s Handbook of the Royal Astronomical Society, you’ll have plenty of time to wish on a shooting star since the shower will last roughly 10 hours.

Unfortunately, the Geminids will be reaching their peak at the same time of the supermoon – 5:05 p.m. MT.

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The livestream will bring together live meteor feeds from Slooh’s flagship observatory at the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands, the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Slooh’s headquarters in CT. Each bright Geminid shooting star you see is caused by a tiny bit of space dust entering the Earth’s atmosphere at high speed and burning up about 60 miles high.

Geminids meteor shower peaks Tuesday amid full moon