Stitched images from the 2008 total lunar eclipse by philliefan_99.

A clear sky is welcome news, as the best meteor shower of the year, the Geminids, peaks tonight. You won’t even have to stay up extraordinarily late for these beauties: the ‘shooting stars’ will be visible from around 11 p.m., with as many as 120 streaking through the sky per hour. If you can’t weather the cold, watch NASA’s radar capturing the fireballs all night.

As we’ve noted in the past, the Geminds are an unusual species of meteor shower – it’s the only one that doesn’t originate from a comet, but an asteroid: 3200 Phaethon (which is possibly an expired comet). Sky & Telescope has the unique origin story. We also enjoyed CalTech’s Professor of Planetary Astronomy Mike Brown’s take on the Geminids on BoingBoing. Though the peak is tonight, the meteor shower will be visible through Thursday.

December has one more important skywatching date: on the 21st, we’ll be treated to a total lunar eclipse. North America will have an excellent view, as the moon enters Earth’s shadow a little after midnight. The moon will enter Earth’s umbra at 1:33 a.m. on the 21st, with totality beginning at 2:41 a.m. and lasting until 3:53 a.m. The eclipse will end at 5:01 a.m. We won’t see another one like this from our neighborhood until 2014, so grab your hot cocoa and mittens, some binoculars if you have them, and be sure to put your spectacular astrophotography images in our Flickr pool to share.