Bandar Seri Begawan – In the predawn hours of December 13, 2015, as the Earth began to sweep through a dense remains of debris from asteroid 3200 Phaethon, these falling space debris burned up in the atmosphere and caused bright flashes in the sky known as shooting stars or geminids meteor showers.

The Geminid shower got its name from the constellation of Gemini or the Twins. From Tutong, there were about 10 meteors in an hour visibled on that morning. The rate is expected to increase as the annual geminid meteor shower peaks tonight (13-14 December 2015). That is when more than 50 shooting stars might be visible every hour (depending on your location/sky). Geminids can be spotted starting between 10 pm and before sunrise, and expected to peak at around 2 am.

The moonless night tonight will make geminids one of the best meteor shower for this year. Star gazers will be looking for cloudless skies and location away from light pollution to catch the meteor shower. No equipment is required because a telescope or binoculars limits the view of the sky.

UPDATE (14 Dec 2015 @ 12 pm): Geminids meteor showers reports by some Bruneians on IG, FB and Twitter. Some had their chance to see the “shooting stars” while others were not due to poor weather. Even though the meteor reached its peak, there are still Geminid Meteors visible for a day or two after the peak although at a much reduced rate. Head up and clear sky!

UPDATE (15 Dec 2015 @ 7.15 am): Let GoPro camera ran all night from 10pm last night until 2am in timelapse and amazingly one of hundreds shots had captured a bright post-peak Geminids meteor from Tutong, Brunei Darussalam, at around 1.30 am. Settings used are shown on the photo.