The shower of meteors will appear to come from the direction of the constellation Gemini, giving the phenomenon its name – the Geminid Shower. At 8 pm tonight, Gemini will appear in the northeast of the night sky.
The website of the National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand (NARIT) explained that shooting stars should be visible from about 8 pm tonight until the early hours of tomorrow morning, at at rate as high as 120 an hour, visible with the naked eye. They will be most visible from midnight until 5am tomorrow.
Unlike other meteor showers, which come from comets passing through the solar system, the Geminids originate from an object called 3200 Phaethon, thought to be a Palladian asteroid. The object is on an elliptical orbit that brings it close to the earth once a year, in December.
NARIT advises people hoping to take pictures of the meteors to use a wide-angle lens, with the camera set on ISO 1600, with continuous shooting.