Whether you call them shooting stars or fireballs, meteors always surprise you. More often than not, you get just a glimpse out of the corner of your eye.

Thursday night and early Friday morning you have a good chance to see a meteor. The Geminid meteor shower, named after the constellation Gemini the Twins, is ready to outperform August's Perseid meteor shower.

The Geminids occur every December and are known for their colorful displays. They are one of the best and most reliable meteor showers of the year, producing 80 to 120 meteors per hour.

Better yet, this year the moon is nowhere to be seen. A new moon means less light pollution.

Meteor showers occur almost every month, but the majority of them are minor, producing 20 meteors per hour or less. The big ones — the Quadrantids (January), Perseids (August) and Geminids — produce 40, 60, and 100 meteors per hour on average respectively.

Those numbers, however, assume you're observing from an extremely dark environment during the shower's peak. If you don't have that luxury, you can still witness the brightest meteors that appear, even in areas with more light pollution. Of course the number of meteors you will potentially see will be less.

Meteor showers result from Earth plowing through debris left behind by comets. Think of Earth as a car's windshield as you drive through a swarm of bugs.

The majority of the debris is about the size of a grain of sand. Occasionally bigger debris about the size of a pebble or larger can produce a fireball, which is an extremely bright meteor.

The Geminids are unique as they don't originate from a comet. They come from asteroid 3200 Phaethon. (Astronomers, however, are now beginning to think that Phaethon may be a dormant or extinct comet.)

Once meteors hit our atmosphere, they can reach speeds of 79,000 miles per hour and are heated to more than 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit, all within 40 to 60 miles above the horizon. The temperature is comparable to that experienced by a returning space shuttle.

An object traveling that fast, even a grain of sand, will glow. That's why meteors produce a bright streak of light that goes by in the blink of an eye. It's also why most meteors completely burn up and never reach the ground.

We used to think that meteors were heated by friction. The heating is actually caused by ram pressure. The fast-moving meteor compresses the air in front of it. The compression heats up the air, which in turn heats up the meteor.

The Geminids move slower than most meteors though. Our planet is "catching up" to the stream of meteoroids instead of running "head-on" into a debris trail.

So where, when, and how do you look for the Geminids?

Look up and relax Thursday night and into Friday morning. Gemini will begin to rise in the east at 6:30 p.m. and will move upward to the south then toward the west. The ideal time to watch is about 10 p.m. Thursday to 5 a.m. Friday, when Gemini is highest in the sky.

It's best to observe with your eyes alone. Scan the areas around the Geminids, not the constellation itself. You will need patience and a little luck as you have to be looking in the right direction at the right time.

So pull out a lawn chair, lay down so you can see most of the open sky, and wait. Just be sure to bundle up. The stage is set for a stellar celestial fireworks display.

While you're waiting for a meteor to zoom by, look for Jupiter, the brightest object in the south-southwestern part of the sky in Taurus the Bull.

And if the weather doesn't cooperate, keep in mind that meteors will be visible on the days surrounding the peak on the night of the 13–14th as well.

This is Cosmic Mike wishing you an astronomical day. For more celestial news and events be sure to "like" my Cosmic Mike page on Facebook.

Mike Smith is senior astronomy educator at the North Museum of Natural History and Science in Lancaster. E-mail: cosmicmike@northmuseum.org