The year will go out in a bang with two meteor showers this month.
The Geminids meteor shower is one of the best of the year with several shooting stars per minute. Stargazers will also see the last super moon of the year and the emergence of the winter sky constellations.
“ December is going to be a fun month,” said Bart Fried, member of the American Astronomical Society. “The Geminids meteor shower, of all the ones I've seen, is by far and away the best.”
Meteors
The Geminids are expected to run from Dec. 7-17, with a peak on the nights of Dec. 13 and 14 when 120 to 150 shooting stars are expected each hour. The meteors are bright, fast and white, but sometimes they are greenish because they contain magnesium and nickel which turn green when they burns up in the Earth’s atmosphere.
There is a second smaller meteor shower right on the Geminids’ tail.
The Ursids are expected to streak across the night sky from Dec. 17 through Christmas. The showers peak with 10 to 20 shooting stars hourly on the longest night of the year, the winter solstice on Dec. 21.
”People always want to know if Santa Claus, the dude that delivers the gifts, whether or not he's flying through the sky and hanging out at the same time as the meteors,” said Jackie Faherty, an astrophysicist at the American Museum of Natural History. “He's fine because they happen much higher up in the atmosphere than he flies.”
Phases of the moon
Crescent moon phases that make the night sky darker may help stargazers hoping to catch the peaks of both the Geminids and the Ursids.
The moon will be in its waning crescent phase during the Geminids’ peak and in its waxing crescent phase during the Ursids.
It will also be a good time to check out planets and the winter constellations that are beginning to appear over New York City. The waxing crescent moon and Saturn will be right next to each other on Dec. 26. Jupiter is glowing right now because it will be at opposition, or its closest position to Earth, in the beginning of early January.
The year's last full moon is on Dec. 4, and it'll appear about 10% bigger and brighter because it will also be a supermoon, or a perigee-syzygy. Due to its elliptical orbit, the moon is closer to Earth at different positions, and a supermoon won't appear again until December of next year. The night of the supermoon, or any full moon, is the least favorable time for astronomy because of how bright the moon is.
“ It's a big romantic full moon rising up. It's of absolutely no importance for science other than it just demonstrates to the average person that the moon gets closer and gets further on a regular basis,” Fried said. ”I would call it the freeze-your-a-- moon.”
Constellations
The herald of the winter night skies is the constellation of Orion the Hunter. The star pattern, which rises in the east, is not difficult to find. The best way to spot it is to look for for the straight line of three very bright stars – Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka – that form its belt. Betelgeuse, a very red shiny star, is on one side of the belt, while the glowing, deep blue Rigel is on the other.
Among all those stars is a fuzzy little patch, the Orion Nebula Cluster, where stars are born. Inwood Hill Park is a good place in the city to view the stellar nursery with the naked eye. If you're traveling outside of the city for the holidays, take advantage of the lack of urban light pollution and get a clearer view of the heavens.
