Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Ephemeris for Thursday, December 13th. The Sun will rise at 8:11. It’ll be up for 8 hours and 50 minutes, setting at 5:02. The Moon, 2 days before first quarter, will set at 11:05 this evening.

Tonight through the morning hours we will have the chance to see the peak of the Geminid meteor shower. The meteors will be most numerous tomorrow morning. This shower is currently besting the Perseid meteor shower of August with a predicted 120 meteors per hour at the peak. The problems for us in viewing this fabulous shower are the cold temperatures and usually cloudy skies. However the Moon will be a problem until it sets after 11 p.m. The source of the Geminids was discovered in 1983. It is a burnt out comet with the asteroid designation (3200) Phaethon which swoops down to only 13 million miles of the Sun, but last year passed only 6.4 million miles from Earth. The Geminids were first seen in 1862.

The times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.

Addendum

The area of the Geminid meteor shower radiant near the star Castor at 4 a.m. December 14, 2018. There are other very minor radiants that provide only a handful of meteors per hour. The Geminids will provide up to 120 meteors per hour. Created using Stellarium.