The Geminid meteor shower.

According to Jiminy Cricket, you could have a whole pile of wishes coming true in the next couple of days.

The Geminids, as they are commonly called, are meteor showers that take place between December 4 to December 17 each year. As the Earth revolves around the sun it travels at an astonishing 107,000 km/hr (around 30 km/second or Mach 14). Comets that have passed our way leave a debris field along their wake. When the Earth passes through one of these debris fields some of those particles smash into our planet. The speed is fast enough to cause them to ignite in the atmosphere; the oxygen causing them to burn up.

Millions of impacts happen regularly during this time, but it peaks on December 13. In order to see the meteor trails, another term for falling star, a few conditions are required. It has to be a clear night for one. Cloud cover blocks any view. Even if there is a perfectly cloudless sky nothing is guaranteed if light pollution is present. The lights from a city significantly dampen the ability to enjoy the show. Moving to an area free of lights will help; the farther away from a city you are the better the experience will be. Then there is the moon. A bright, full moon really reduces the contrast between the meteor trails and the background sky.

It turns out that much of Canada is in for quite a ride. On December 14th there is a New Moon (no moon present). Tonight, where I live (Lower Mainland), there is to be a clear sky and only a sliver of the moon will be visible. On top of all that there is a geomagnetic storm brewing which means the northern lights may be visible from southern parts of Canada. Together it all means there will be quite a show.

The above photo is a 30 second exposure of the Big Dipper (you can see it near the horizon) I took some years ago. I added the comet by playing with Photoshop. I used a feathered polygonal lasso tool and a gradient tool to produce the effect. It turns out that it is not easy capturing a stunning shooting star photo.

Thanks for reading.     Ericspix     Eric Svendsen

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