November Meteor Showers Were Tame But December Expected To Dazzle

A week ago, I was bemoaning the fact that I missed out on a rare "fireball" meteor that cut through the skies of Ocean County and was seen by certainly dozens and probably hundreds.

The meteor was likely thanks to overlapping November meteor showers, with the Northern Taurid meteor shower peaking last week and the Leonid meteor shower peaking this week.

While neither was particularly active (except for that fireball which, let's be honest, goes pretty far in making up a relatively quiet overall meteor shower), experts are expecting a different story in December, with an event that you should mark your calendar for right now.

The Geminid meteor shower will roll around our celestial neighborhood just before the middle of the month, with an expected peak of December 13th.

Space.com, an always reliable destination for expert meteor shower guidance, is already looking ahead to the 2020 Geminids, expecting what they're predicting to be, "...A prolific meteor shower".

One of the reasons that this year's edition of the Geminids should be impressive is the fact that there won't be moonlight to wash out the night sky, thanks to the December 14th new moon.

Obviously, we can't predict the weather this far ahead of time, but if we get lucky and don't have much cloud cover here in Ocean County, it'll be worth it to bundle up and find somewhere to lay out and look up.

You can keep an eye on Space.com, they've promised to post full coverage as the event draws closer, and I'll post an update here when December rolls around!