Full moon disturbs the observation of shooting stars in December
Published: Wednesday, Dec 4th 2024, 13:00
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With the Advent season comes the starry season: from the end of the week, the annual Geminid meteor shower can be observed. But this year, the spectacle in the sky will be marred by the full moon.
The shooting stars peak on the night of December 13 to 14, as Marc Eichenberger, President of the Swiss Astronomical Society, told the Keystone-SDA news agency on request. However, the Geminids can be seen in the sky throughout the entire period from December 6 to 16.
The maximum number of shooting stars per hour is around 150, but this is a theoretical value, says Eichenberger. The light from street lamps or other artificial lighting impairs visibility. In addition, the moon is full on December 15, which further limits the number of visible Geminids.
Only 5 to 10 Geminids can be seen per hour
The moon will rise on Friday, December 13, at the beginning of dusk and set again around Saturday morning, as meteorologist Klaus Marquardt wrote in a blog article on the "Meteonews" portal on Wednesday. It will therefore light up the sky practically all night.
As a result, only very bright Geminids are visible and the number of shooting stars that can actually be observed is reduced enormously. According to Eichenberger, only five to ten meteors per hour will be visible in the Swiss sky.
To see the shooting stars as well as possible, Eichenberger recommends starting your observations at around 9 or 10 pm. In terms of location, the mountains would be more suitable, as they tend to offer a darker night sky. However, a "dark spot on the Central Plateau" is also suitable.
The Geminids originate from a cloud of dust that passes through the earth on its orbit around the sun at the same time every year. The dust particles enter the Earth's atmosphere, where they then produce the luminous phenomena known as shooting stars.
©Keystone/SDA
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