The Germinid meteor shower is active between 4 and 20 December this year, reaching its peak on 14 to 15 December. It is estimated that the zenithal hourly rate (ZHR) of the meteor shower can reach 150 during the peak period. The peak lies on the second to the third day of the lunar month, the influence of moonlight will be negligible, resulting in favourable observation conditions.

On 14 December, the radiant of the Geminid meteor shower will rise in the northeast at about 7:30 pm Meteors can be seen when the radiant is above the horizon. The radiant of Geminid meteor shower is close to the zenith at 3:00am on 15 December. More than 20 meteors may be seen at remote area per hour.

The Geminids are comparatively bright, slow in speed, rich and stable in number, which make them spectacular for visual observation. Geminid meteor shower is one of the few meteor showers caused by an asteroid instead of a comet. Its parent body is an asteroid called 3200 Phaethon. The Geminids result when large amounts of debris scattered by Phaethon along its orbit fall into the Earth's atmosphere. Since these debris come from the same source, all meteors will emanate from the same point called the radiant.

Date and time	Zenithal Hourly Rate
3 am, 15 December	150

* The zenithal hourly rate (ZHR) is the extrapolated hourly rate of meteors observable in an extremely dark and wide sky with the radiant located at the zenith. As some meteor showers have very short peak periods, observers sometimes extrapolate the number of meteors observed in ten and a few minutes to an hourly number in proportion. Therefore, the zenithal hourly rate cannot be regarded as the actual number of meteors visible in one hour. Yet, it can be used as a meaningful comparison between the activities of different meteor showers. Some meteor showers can be as inactive as having single digit zenithal hourly rates. There are "three major meteor showers" (Quadrantid meteor shower, Perseid meteor shower, and Geminid meteor shower), which have the ZHRs reaching 100 or even higher values, and hence worth watching.

(Source: International Meteor Organisation)

Best local observation time	Expected average number of meteors
2-3 am, 15 December	City outskirts1	Nearby countryside2	Remote area3
	3	9	27

¹ Region where stars brighter than magnitude 3 are visible (about 100 stars) and with an unobstructed view of about 60% of the entire sky.
² Region where stars brighter than magnitude 4 are visible (about 300 stars) and with an unobstructed view of about 70% of the entire sky.
³ Region where stars brighter than magnitude 5 are visible (about 1,000 stars) and with an unobstructed view of about 80% of the entire sky.

Replay the live streaming of the Geminid meteor shower 2023 on HKSpM YouTube Channel.