One of the best shows of the year will be streaming this week – but you won't be able to catch it on TV.
The annual Geminid meteor shower, which has been happening since late November, is expected to ramp up its activity tonight -- becoming visible to most of the continent, according to NASA.
If conditions are clear, stargazers should be able to see up to 120 meteors per hour.
This year's shower is also expected to be especially colorful because there will be "minimal moonlight" on Wednesday, according to NASA.
"Most meteors appear to be colorless or white," NASA's Bill Cooke said in a statement. "However, the Geminids appear with a greenish hue. They're pretty meteors."
A good time to look will be after 8:30 p.m. EST the evening of Wednesday, December 13, until about 6 a.m. the morning of Thursday, December 14, when the first hints of dawn will begin to interfere.
The best time to view the meteor shower is during its peak, between 2 to 3 a.m. EST Thursday. Under ideal conditions, NASA says about 150 meteors will be visible during this time.
All you need to view the spectacular event is a clear sky, darkness and a bit of patience. NASA says meteors can generally be seen all over the sky, so you don't need to look in any particular direction.
The more sensitive your eyes are, the more chance you will have of seeing meteors. Be sure to give your eyes plenty of time to adapt to the dark. Your color vision will adapt to darkness in about 10 minutes, but your more sensitive night vision will continue to improve for an hour or more, NASA said.
While the Geminids peak overnight, the meteor shower will remain active until December 24.
The Geminid meteor shower gets its name because the meteors appear to radiate out from the constellation Gemini. According to NASA, the Geminids appear when tiny remnants from an asteroid named 3200 Phaethon interact with Earth's atmosphere, where they disintegrate to create fiery and colorful streaks in the sky. Most meteor showers are the result of comet remnants, so the Geminids are special because they originate from an asteroid.