Look for Mars and Jupiter
Although the Moon might be taking some of the spotlight, there are other celestial objects to look for while you are out meteor spotting.
Jupiter is at opposition on December 7, which means that it lies directly opposite the Sun and is up the whole night.
“When a planet is at opposition, it’s a great time to observe it. The planet rises in the east around sunset, reaches its highest point in the sky around midnight-ish, and sets as the night ends around sunrise,“ says Graham Jones, an astrophysicist and science communicator at mungfali.galihkartiwa07.workers.dev.
“Mid-winter is a particularly good time of year to see a planet at opposition: it’s above the horizon for a longer time, and it climbs even higher into the sky.”
Mars is also nearing its opposition on January 16, and has already started shining brightly in the dark skies, and is easy to spot with its characteristic rusty color.
What can you see in the night sky from your location? Search for planets, constellations, and more in our Night Sky Map, and use the side menu to see what the night sky looks like above you.
Use our Night Sky Map to identify planets, constellations, and stars. This screenshot is from New York on December 13 at 22:00 (10:00 pm) local time. (The sizes of the objects are exaggerated to show their positions more clearly.)
©mungfali.galihkartiwa07.workers.dev
How to See the Geminid Meteor Shower
Any stargazer would tell you that darkness and patience are the keys to meteor watching: Find somewhere away from the city lights with little light pollution, get comfortable, and look up.
Dress for the weather, bring something to sit on, like a blanket or a lawn chair, and then wait. Your eyes need to adjust to the darkness, and it can take up to 20 minutes, so put away your phone.
The meteors in a meteor shower appear to come from the same point in the sky—this is called the radiant. For this meteor shower, the radiant is in the constellation of Gemini, which is why they’re called the Geminids. It is visible in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.
Meteors can appear in any part of the sky, so you don’t have to find the radiant point specifically, but generally speaking, the higher the radiant, the more meteors you can see.
What’s Next?
You can catch the Ursids peaking around December 22–23. Also, early in 2025, the Quadrantids peak around January 2–3.
Meteor Shower Calendar