The best meteor shower of the year is coming! When to watch it? Where to watch it? How to watch it?

Venus will be with the moon, Jupiter will be at opposition, Mercury will be at its greatest western elongation... In December, there will be many wonderful astronomical events. The Geminid meteor shower, the most stable and the highest flow of the three major meteor showers, will also arrive.

Meteor shower data map (Source: Visual China)

December 5th is the " encore performance " of Venus and the Moon: the thin crescent moon comes to the east of Venus, and the two have another intimate date. Wang Yumin, an expert from the Beijing Ancient Observatory, said that in recent months, there will be one or two evenings every month with a similar astronomical phenomenon, which is very worth appreciating and photographing. The next protagonist to appear is Jupiter.

Jupiter will be at opposition on December 8 , and the days before and after are the best time to observe Jupiter. Jupiter rises at dusk and sets at dawn, and is visible all night long. It is the brightest object in the night sky besides the moon and Venus. Observers can also see Saturn and the moon in close proximity.

The peak time of this year's Geminid meteor shower is around 9:00 a.m. on December 14. Therefore, the best time to observe is from the night of the 13th to the early morning of the 14th. Unfortunately, the moon phase is gradually getting full in the past few days, which has a great impact on observation and photography. Observers can choose to avoid moonlight and face east to observe after the moon sets in the west in the second half of the night.

In the early morning of December 14, the moon will pass in front of the Pleiades, stole the show from the Geminids. "Lunar occultations" can happen many times in the same month. On December 9, the moon will occult Neptune; on December 25, the moon will occult Spica.

The last " Mercury's greatest western elongation " of the year will take place on December 25. Because Mercury is too close to the sun, it is often drowned out by the sun's brilliance at dusk or dawn. It can only be seen with the naked eye when its angular distance from the sun reaches its maximum. At that time, as long as the weather is fine, at dawn about a week before and after the greatest elongation, observers can look toward the southeast sky and observe Mercury with the naked eye or with the help of binoculars.