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Hundreds of extremely bright meteors to paint Metro Vancouver skies

This month, Vancouverites are privy to one of the brightest meteors shower of the year — the Geminid meteor shower. The shower peaks on Dec. 13 to 14, and it produces an army of shooting stars.
Local star gazers will enjoy a Geminid meteor shower next week. Photo iStock
Local star gazers will enjoy a Geminid meteor shower next week. Photo iStock

This month, Vancouverites are privy to one of the brightest meteors shower of the year — the Geminid meteor shower.

The shower peaks on Dec. 13 to 14, and it produces an army of shooting stars. Specifically, this dazzling astral display produces more than one meteor per minute, which means up to 100 of the bright stars per hour.

Last month, Vancouver witnessed the Leonid meteor shower, which also produced extremely bright meteors; however, the November shower did not produce as many of the speeding beams. The Leonid shower produces 10 to 15 at its peak per hour, compared to the impressive 100 meteors an hour that the Geminid can.

The Geminids originate from the constellation of Gemini, but they may be viewed across the night sky.

“For best results, you should look slightly away from Gemini so that you can see meteors with longer “tails” as they streak by; staring directly at Gemini will just show you meteors that don’t travel very far,” instructs Space.

As a result of their speed, these dazzling meteors leave visible trails. With that being said, stargazers should still opt to travel as far away from city lights as possible in order to avoid light pollution that will obscure the clarity of heavenly bodies. While this works best in more remote places, anywhere that has a higher elevation will also provide more ideal viewing conditions.

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