Meteors
   The Geminid meteor shower will reach maximum intensity on the evening of the thirteenth of December. The crescent Moon will not interfere.

    The Earth runs into interplanetary dust all of the time. When this dust enters our atmosphere and burns up, we see a meteor. If the swarm of dust is concentrated in a small enough region of space, we see a meteor shower.
   In such a shower, perspective causes the parallel paths of the meteoroids to appear to come from a radiant.

    Meteor showers do happen during daylight hours, by the way. It is possible to detect these daytime meteors using radio waves.     Here is what to expect in 2007.

   Here is a neat little movie of a shooting star.

   

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Updated December 17, 2007