Geminid Meteors, Best Shooting Stars Of 2023, Peak This Week Over IL

ILLINOIS — Weather permitting in Illinois, stargazers will be rewarded with what is regarded as the best meteor shower of the year, the Geminids, which fire off at a rate of about 120 shooting stars an hour during the Wednesday night and Thursday morning peak.

This is expected to be a banner year for the Geminids. The moon will be a slim crescent low in the west-southwest sky that sets before nightfall, leaving a dark sky to view the shower known for often yellowish-colored meteors and fireballs.

In most places in the country, warmer-than-normal December temperatures, thanks to a strong El Niño climate pattern, are ideal for overnight meteor watching. The National Weather Service calls for mostly clear overnight Wednesday and Thursday in Illinois although some clouds may form in the overnight hours Wednesday into Thursday, forecasters predict.

The best views of the Geminid meteor shower are around 2 a.m. local time on Thursday when the shower’s radiant point — the constellation Gemini — is at its highest point in the sky. But because Gemini begins to come up near the east-northeast horizon around twilight, you may see a few shooting stars as soon as the sky gets dark Wednesday night, making it a perfect meteor shower to enjoy with the kids, according to NASA.

Early evening skywatchers may catch a rare “Earth grazer” — that is, a slow-moving, long-lasting bright meteor traveling horizontally across the sky.

Around 9 or 10 p.m. local time, the shower noticeably picks up in velocity, according to Space.com. That’s because the higher the radiant point in the sky, the more meteors it produces.