Shropshire Star

Head to the Shropshire Hills to see shooting stars

Shropshire's dark skies are about to come into their own again – weather permitting. Throughout the year there is the chance to see different displays of shooting stars in the night sky.

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Next up is the Geminids, which appear above Earth every December, and astronomers will be heading to the Shropshire Hills, which have been officially designated as having dark skies status, to see the light show.

The Geminids tend to appear sometime between December 4 and 17.

This year The Geminids are expected to peak on December 13 and 14 – between sunset on Tuesday, December 13 and sunrise on Wednesday, December 14. Peak time is usually around 2am.

The Geminids, along with the Quadrantids seen in January, are the only meteors that do not originate from a comet.

They are in fact a meteor shower caused by a three-mile-wide asteroid called 3200 Phaethon, which is orbiting the sun.

As the asteroid gets close to the sun, the intense heat makes its rocky surface crack apart, making pieces fly off and trail behind it.

Every December the Earth crosses the orbital path of the asteroid, which sees the trail of space rubble collide with our atmosphere. The rock and dust then burn up, creating streaks of light.

The Geminids were first recorded in 1862 – very recent compared with other shooting stars – and seem to be getting more intense every year.

The meteors get their name because they appear to come from the constellation Gemini. They are quite slow-moving, travelling at around 22 miles per second, so they are usually easy to spot.

Anyone taking to the Shropshire Hills for the spectacle can expect to see as many as 120 to 160 shooting stars per hour.

But they may be hampered even if there are clear skies because there will be a full moon around that time, which will be larger than normal.

Shropshire's night sky hot-spots are across Carding Mill Valley and the Long Mynd hill range, near Church Stretton.

They have been awarded 'Milky Way' class Dark Sky Discovery Site (DSDS) status.

It means Shropshire now joins areas in Northumberland, South Wales and the Isle of Man as an official mecca for telescope buffs.

The National Trust, which owns all four sites, put in the designation bid with support of astronomers and Shropshire Council.

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