Beyond The Forecast: Full 'Cold' Moon To Light Christmas Skies
BOSTON (CBS) – With no signs of snow in the forecast and winter temporarily on hold, this may be a good time to look skyward and appreciate some celestial events going on in the coming days.
First and foremost is the Geminid meteor shower. The Geminids aren't just "any old meteor shower." In fact they are widely known as one of the best shows of the year. Along with the Perseid in August, the Geminids very rarely disappoint and this year should be no different.
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Another Geminid bonus: their radiant (general point in space from which they come from) rises high in the nighttime sky much earlier in the evening, around 11 p.m., than the Perseids which is typically a more late night show.
The absolute peak this year comes during the day of Monday, December 14. So we should be in for a pretty nice show during the nights before (Dec. 13-14) and after (Dec. 14-15).
SPOTTING A METEOR
Best advice on how to see a meteor:
- Get to a dark location, without any natural light
- Scout out a location with a large view of open sky, no trees or other obstructions in the way
- Lie flat on your back and gaze into the sky's darkest part
If you follow these guidelines, you should see at least 1-2 meteors per minute.
WILL WEATHER COOPERATE?
Of course there is a big *BUT* here. We need the weather to cooperate. The moon is in a great phase, a few days old, waxing crescent. Unfortunately, at this point it doesn't appear as though the weather will be anywhere near ideal.
A frontal boundary will be in the vicinity of Southern New England on Sunday, likely producing a good deal of clouds. I would rate your chances at some clear skies less than 50 percent Sunday night.
Sadly it looks even worse on Monday night with an area of rainfall likely moving in. At this point, good viewing the night of Dec 14-15 seems very unlikely, less than 20 percent.
CHRISTMAS FULL MOON
Good news though, if you miss out on the Geminids, there is one more semi-rare event coming up soon! Can you remember the last time we had a full moon on Christmas? If you are younger than 38 than I can assure you that you have never witnessed it.
This Christmas the full "cold" moon will light the way for Santa and his reindeer for the first time since 1977. Officially full on December 25 at 6:11 a.m., there won't be another occurrence on Christmas until the year 2034!
