Can we see the Gemini meteor shower in Wuhan today? Urgent~

December 14: The Geminid meteor shower can be seen in most of my country from the Gemini radiant point

The Gemini constellation rises from the northeast after 7 o'clock in the evening and sets in the west at around 4 o'clock in the morning. , can be seen basically all night long, but the moon is still in the bright waxing gibbous phase, but it will sink quickly after midnight, leaving a dark sky. At this time, people can observe up to 120 moons per hour. A shooting star. For those brave enough to brave the cold, this is an opportunity not to be passed up. Affected by moonlight in the first half of the night, the observation effect is better in the second half of the night. The Gemini radiant point is just near the zenith. You can just lie down and look up. Keep warm. It may be cold by then, so pay attention to the weather. Another thing is to go to a place with less light pollution.

However, observing meteors requires very high air and darkness. If you cannot count more than 200 stars at the place where you observe, it is recommended that you sleep.

And this year’s Geminid meteor shower will be at its peak when the moon phase is close to the full moon, and the moonlight will cover most of the meteors. And the radiant point is less than 10 degrees from the moon. If you insist on watching, I'm afraid you will be extremely disappointed.

There are a few points that need to be explained about the meteor shower:

First of all, the meteor shower is not like rain as imagined. As long as the meteors come out from a radiant point, it will be fine. Think it's a meteor shower. There are nearly 40 meteor showers every year. You only need to think about how many meteor showers you can see every year and you will understand. The meteor shower flow rate mentioned in the forecast refers to the number of meteors that a person with normal vision can see at the zenith per hour when the meteor shower reaches its peak, with no lights, no moonlight, clear weather and no wind. It is difficult to achieve this condition, so the number of meteors that can actually be seen is greatly reduced. The larger meteor showers every year include the Quadrantid meteor shower around January 4, the Lyrid meteor shower around April 22, the Perseid meteor shower on August 13-14, the Leonid meteor shower on November 17-18, and the Leonid meteor shower in December. The Geminid meteor shower around the 14th.

Secondly, it is difficult to predict meteor showers accurately to the hour, because the mass of the materials that form meteor showers is very small, and slight gravitational disturbances will change the time they arrive at the earth.

Again, you must not use a telescope to watch the meteor shower, just use your naked eyes. Using a telescope will seriously affect the effect due to the small field of view received.

Finally, my opinion is, if you are not interested in astronomy, but just want to see meteor showers, don’t get any hope. In fact, this is largely the result of media reporters’ ignorance of astronomy and hype. They thought the meteor shower would be the same as the one in 2001. But if you want to observe, you must go to the wild or the countryside, otherwise the city lights will make you unable to see anything.