Meteor shower to send hundreds of meteors through clear skies over Colorado

The Geminids meteor shower, often the most active of the year, is expected peak late Thursday and early Friday, with hundreds of meteors streaking across the sky.

The meteor shower will peak “under nearly ideal conditions,”  Astronomy magazine reported. The waxing crescent moon will set about 10:30 p.m., “leaving the rest of the night Moon-free.”

Although it’s one of the few showers with meteors visible in the evening, the best viewing conditions will be after midnight,  AccuWeather says. Colorado falls in a region expected to have good visibility from dusk Thursday until dawn Friday.

“The Geminids are a very reliable shower if you watch at the peak time of night (2 a.m.) … and if you watch in a dark sky,” says  a post on EarthSky. “The meteors tend to be bold, white and quick.”

The sky is expected to be mostly clear Thursday night in Colorado Springs, with a low of 21 degrees, the National Weather Service in Pueblo reported.

“The Geminids are active every December, when Earth passes through a massive trail of dusty debris shed by a weird, rocky object named 3200 Phaethon,”  NASA says. “The dust and grit burn up when they run into Earth’s atmosphere in a flurry of ‘shooting stars.'”