If the night sky is clear over this weekend, skywatchers and stargazers across Cumbria – and across the UK – should be in for a treat, as one of the year’s best meteor showers reaches its peak.
Every mid-December the “GEMINID” meteor shower happens when the Earth passes through a stream of tiny pieces of space dust. As these particles streak through the atmosphere they burn up, and we see them as streaks and flashes of light in the night sky – shooting stars.
You don’t need a telescope to watch the show, in fact a telescope is useless: all you have to do is go outside, look up, and wait. Eventually you’ll start to see shooting stars! Some will be bright, some will be faint. Some will be brightly coloured too.
The best time to look out for the shooting stars is late Sunday evening and into Monday morning. The later (and longer!) you look, the more you’ll see. If the shower puts on a good show, we might see as many as two or three every minute, but the exact number we’ll see can’t be predicted. But one thing is certain – if the sky is clear this weekend, we’ll see a lot more shooting stars than usual.
Happy hunting!
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Cumbrian Sky 
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