Geminid Shower: Outside? in Mid-December? at Five in the Morning? in Central Minnesota?!

"Geminid meteor shower expected to be heavenly show"
Elizabeth Weise, Science & Space, Technology, USA Today (December 10, 2010)

"Flaming rocks will soon begin hurtling toward the Earth with the arrival of the annual Geminid meteor shower, one of the biggest of the year.

"The peak of the week-long shower will come just before dawn on Tuesday, but the shooting stars will also be visible across the world late in the weekend, says Rebecca Johnson, editor of StarDate magazine from the McDonald Observatory near Fort Davis, Texas.

"Where skies are clear, the viewing will be best 'before dawn on Tuesday. It starts to get light an hour before sunrise, so any time before that is going to be a good time to look,' she says....

"...The peak will hit Tuesday morning at 6 a.m. Eastern time, 5 a.m. Central, 4 a.m. Mountain and 3 Pacific, says Johnson...."

Five in the morning, in the middle of December, in central Minnesota?

The Lemming will probably stay inside.

But don't let that stop you. There's more about the Geminid shower and 3200 Phaethon, the asteroid the rocks come from, in that USA Today article.

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