When to watch the spectacular Geminid meteor shower

A major meteor shower will ignite the night sky over the weekend — providing one of the most spectacular shooting star displays of the year.

Dubbed the Geminids, the annual interstellar light show began Dec. 4 and is expected to hit its peak viewing time Saturday and Sunday night around 9 p.m EST, according to NASA.

But since the city that never sleeps is home to some of the heaviest concentrations of lights in the world, the meteor shower may serve as a perfect excuse for New Yorkers to take a relaxing two-day getaway upstate.

"You will be able to see 60 to 80 per hour with the naked eye with a wide expanse of sky in a rural area," astronomer Bob Berman said in a press release. "Cities will only be able to see one or two per hour."

Some of the best spots to see the Geminids will be across the Eastern Seaboard as a high pressure system moves across the region, Accuweather reports. The Midwest and southern Southwest will also see clear skies.

People in the Rockies and out West will not fare so well — seeing nothing but clouds as a pesky storm system develops over Colorado and the southern Plains on Saturday night.

The weather will likely remain this way until Sunday, meteorologists said.

The best time to look up will be before the moon's light obstructs the view of the falling meteors. In the Big Apple, this will be anytime before 11:30 p.m. EST, according to timeanddate.com's moonrise calculator.

Those who don't feel like leaving their sofa will be able to have a front-row seat to the meteor shower by watching any number of live broadcasts on the web, including Slooh, an online community observatory.

"The Geminids are very strange because they hit Earth sideways," Berman added. "These meteors hit us gently. While summer's Perseids strike Earth at 37 miles per second, that's amazingly fast, and the Leonids are even a little bit faster, hitting us at just over 40 miles a second, these Geminids hit us at only 22 miles a second."

The space spectacle is expected to come to an end on Dec. 17.

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