posted December 13, 2004 06:04 PM              

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Monday, December 13, 2004

A chilly, clear night, a cup of hot chocolate and a lawn chair set on way back.

Try that at 10 p.m. today instead of watching CSI: Miami and the reward may be a view of 40 or 50 graceful meteors slicing through the southern sky.

Geminid meteor shower
•What to look for during the evening celestial display.

These are the Geminids, annually one of the best celestial showers, and this year likely the best. While most meteors do their best shows just before dawn, the Geminids are more civilized.

Their best hours are 10 p.m. to 2 a.m.

The Geminids seem to emanate from the constellation Gemini, hence the name. But don't stare at it. "Look all over the sky to the see the meteors," said Jack Horkheimer, director of the Miami Space Transit Planetarium and host of PBS' Star Gazer.

Lucky for ground-bound sky-watchers, the moon will be a mere two-day crescent and won't interfere with the meteor watching. The best views are from dark areas without street lights or other nearby illumination.

The Geminids occur when Earth moves through the trail of microscopic debris left by 3200 Phaeton, a hunk of space rock astronomers aren't sure is a comet or an asteroid. Meteor showers are usually the result of comet dust.

Phaeton has no tail, unlike comets whose tails are the result of vaporized ice leaving surface cracks on the comet, allowing dust and gas to escape.