The night of Saturday, December 15, is the evening when the Geminid meteor shower is due to light up the midnight skies.
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However, with cloud and rainfall predicted over Saturday and into Sunday, Martin George, manager of the Launceston Planetarium at QVMAG, isn’t overly optimistic about the chances of seeing it from Tasmania tonight.
If it does miraculously clear up, the best time to head outdoors and look up will be after 1am.
“From our latitude, we need to wait until after midnight,” Mr George said.
“And the best time is from the small hours of the morning, from about 1 or 2am.
“There’s no point going out at 10pm, because you won’t see a thing.”
The meteor shower is likely to involve “shooting stars” (although they have nothing to do with actual stars, as Mr George pointed out) at a rate of about 20 per hour.
Without cloud cover, the further away from light pollution you are, the more likely you are to see them.
“It’s also a good idea to get your eyes used to the darkness, because some of them may be fairly faint,” Mr George said.
“If it does clear up, it’s worth having a look.”
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