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Meteor Shower

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Geminid Meteor Shower 2012 Peak: When to Watch in Minnetonka

The most reliable meteor shower of the year, the Geminids, is on its way over Minnetonka.

The Geminid meteor shower 2012, the final major meteor shower of every year and likely to be the best, peaks overnight Dec. 13 and Dec. 14, and you may be able to see a great show on either side of those dates. If you liked the Perseids meteor shower 2012 in August, you should love this show. NASA reports that the Geminids are a relatively young meteor shower, with the first sightings occurring in the 1830s with rates of about 20 per hour. Over the decades the rates have increased, regularly spawning between 80 and 120 per hour at its peak on a clear evening. How spectacular is it? Take a look at some photos of the Geminids. Earthsky.org reports the Geminids peak might be around 2 a.m. on those days, because that’s when the shower’s …

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christine

1:08 pm on Thursday, December 13, 2012

Upside down and backwards to the N then to the W :o)   more ›

Friday, August 10, 2012

Perseids Meteor Shower 2012: Peak Time and Place to Watch in Minnetonka

The meteor shower will be at its best Saturday and Sunday. Where should you watch the Perseids Meteor Shower in Minnetonka?

The Perseids Meteor Shower 2012 can work for you as a cheap date night, especially since it peaks in Minnetonka on Saturday night and into Sunday morning. If the clouds cooperate (that means if they stay away), you can see the annual meteor shower any night this week. Space.com tells us these objects are tiny bits of rock and debris from an old comet, which is named Swift-Tuttle after the astronomers who discovered it in 1862. The shower splashes through the sky every year in early August when Earth passes through the comet Swift-Tuttle's orbit and sweeps up some of this debris. We see shooting stars– rapid streaks of light –as the tiny rocks encounter the thin upper atmosphere of the Earth and the air is heated to incandescence. For the …

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