The cosmos put on a spectacular show last night for those crazy hardy enough to venture outside into the cold night air. The annual Geminid meteor shower, which this year runs from December 6-19, hit its peak in the overnight hours. There should be a repeat engagement tonight, but the National Weather Service is forecasting a solid cloud cover for the region, which will block the view.

The pieces that make up the Geminid meteor shower are actually debris from an asteroid named Phaethon, which traverses an elliptical orbit around the sun. Every December, the Earth’s orbit brings us through this trail of debris, causing an intense light show. On a clear, moonless night it is possible to see as many as 80-100 meteors each hour. Last night’s display was partially obscured due to the full moon, but a number of D.C.-area residents still reported some celestial activity.

The Geminid shower is so named because the meteors appear to radiate from the Gemini constellation. The next visible meteor shower is the Ursid shower, expected to peak December 22-23.

Did any DCist readers catch a glimpse of last night’s shower? Leave your observations in the comments.

Photo of the 1995 Alpha-Monocerotid meteor outburst by S. Molau and P. Jenniskens, NASA Ames Research Center.