December nights are the longest -- and often some of the coldest -- of the year.
While some may dread December's darkness, Colorado astronomy guide Mark Laurin -- who is better known as Astro Mark -- said this month can be magnificent for stargazers and offers one of the best meteor showers of the year.
"The effort is going to be bundling up, but the beauty of being out there this time of year is that there is so much happening in the night sky," said Laurin, who teaches astronomy in conjunction with the Colorado Tourism Center and as an adjunct instructor for the Keystone Science School. "... The amazing contradiction about astronomy and stargazing is that the best time to look is probably the most difficult time to look."
Coloradans who spend even just a few minutes looking at the night sky this month won't be disappointed. The annual Geminids Meteor Shower is among the best of the year and will coincide with the Ursids Meteor Shower, another significant meteor shower, as well as other minor meteor showers, Laurin wrote in his December stargazing blog.
A meteor, often called a "shooting star," is the bright streak of light seen when a small piece of space debris burns up in the atmosphere. A meteor shower occurs when the Earth's orbit passes through a stream of debris left by a comet or an asteroid, causing a shower of shooting stars as the debris burns up in the atmosphere.
"One of the misconceptions about stargazing is that you have to be out there for hours," Laurin said, noting that those who spend just five to 10 minutes looking up at the night sky this month could witness a shooting star.
With tall mountains that help block light pollution, Colorado is a destination for stargazing. Dark Sky International has certified 19 places in Colorado, including towns, state parks and national parks, as Dark Sky Places, and even more are working to achieve that designation.
Laurin, who is a mentor for Dark Sky Colorado, the local branch of the international nonprofit, suggested dressing warmly, including in boots with thick sole, and bringing a chair, a blanket and a hot drink, like cocoa, to sip on.
With all these overlapping meteor showers, Laurin suggested parents take their children stargazing, perhaps even on Christmas Eve, to stoke excitement for the holiday season. Is it possible, he wondered, that that shooting star was actually Santa Claus and his reindeer making a practice run across the night sky?
The Geminids Meteor Shower, a meteor shower that occurs annually in December, is one of the top five meteor showers of the year and is expected to offer more than 10 meteors per hour at its peak.
Active from Dec. 4 to Dec. 24, the Geminids Meteor Shower will peak in the early morning hours of Dec. 14. This year's Geminid's meteor shower will be "great," Laurin said, because the moon will be a waning crescent and won't rise above the horizon early in the morning, allowing for the viewing of fainter meteors, which would otherwise be drowned out by the moon's light.
To locate the meteor showers "radiant point" -- or the spot where the shooting stars will appear to emanate from -- stargazers should look to the east-northeast horizon after dark. This year, Laurin said the radiant point will be easy to locate, since it will be near the planet Jupiter, which will be the "the biggest, brightest point" in that part of the sky.
"Try to take in the whole sky when you're out there," Laurin said. "Meteors can come from any direction. Look around. Don't just stare at the radiant point. Take in the whole night sky."
During the peak, stargazers can expect to witness shooting stars anytime after 5:30 p.m. on Dec. 13, but the intensity of the meteor shower will continue to increase throughout the night, with the height of the shower expected to be around 2 a.m.
With meteors likely every couple of minutes, the Geminids are a great activity for friends and family to experience together over the holiday season, Laurin said. Even those who are alone for the holidays can find company in the meteor shower by reflecting on the generations of humans who have stared in wonder at the celestial phenomena, he said.
"I'm becoming more and more convinced that that is where stargazing is going to be a solution to an issue we experience in our society today, which is isolation, loneliness and the feeling of being by themselves," Laurin said. "When you look up and you look at this meteor shower, you go centuries back, back, back, people have looked at this meteor shower."
The Ursids Meteor Shower, another major meteor shower in December, will overlap with the Geminids, resulting in even more opportunities for stargazers to experience awe, Laurin said.
The Ursids will be active from Dec. 17 through Dec. 22, when it will peak around 9 p.m. The meteor shower will offer about seven meteors per hour and, under clear skies, it will be visible from sunset to sunrise.
The radiant point will be near the constellation Ursa Minor, which is better known as the Little Dipper, on the northern horizon. The later in the evening or early morning, the higher the constellation will be in the northern sky.
In addition to the Geminids and the Ursids, there will also be four other meteor showers during the month of December, although Laurin said these meteor showers will be less active than the two major showers.
The Monocerotids will be active from Dec. 5 to Dec. 20, the Coma Berencids from Dec. 12 to Dec. 20, the Cassiopeids from Dec. 1 to Dec. 8 and the December Leonis from Dec. 5 to Dec. 24.
These showers will only offer a few, if any, shooting stars an hour, but Laurin noted that the night sky is full of wonder, regardless of whether a shooting star is spotted. He noted that the constellations Orion and Tarus are visible during the winter months, as is his favorite open star cluster: The Pleiades, or the Seven Sisters.
"The universe draws you in. The universe welcomes you," Laurin said. "The cosmos always has room for you to share in its beauty and its grandeur."