Meteor shower latest: When you can see the Geminids as it flies through the night sky

The Geminids may be the best of the night sky's many wonders – and it's getting better

A photographer looks at the sky at night to see the annual Geminid meteor shower near Provenzales' rock, in Maira Valley, northern Italy on December 6, 2016 (MARCO BERTORELLO/AFP/Getty Images)

One of the best shows in the solar system is pass over the Earth.

Overnight, the Geminids meteor shower will fly over the Earth. People who step outside will be greeted by the flurry of shooting stars that make up the best meteor shower of the year.

The show reaches its peak over Wednesday night, though some of it will still be visible in the early hours of Thursday morning.

The Geminids isn't the most famous of the year's meteor showers – that honour probably goes to the Perseids. But many favour tonight's show, since it is rich in shooting stars and happens to come at a time of the year when the nights are long and visibility is often good, and the meteors themselves travel a little more slowly through the sky.

You should be able to see something by heading out at any time during the night. By doing so and looking up for a while you should be able to catch something – when the show reaches its peak, around midnight, you might be able to spot more than 100 meteors streaming past each hour.

And the skies seem to have lined up to make this one an especially memorable show by the Geminids. The moon will be fairly slim, meaning that its light won't block out too much of the sky, and Jupiter will be close to it so that you can get a look at that while you're staring up, too.

Unfortunately, it's going to be a cloudy night. A long patch of cloud will cover almost all of England – and much of the rest of the UK – in the evening, though it will move and lift through the night.

Visibility could improve into the pre-dawn hours, which is when the Geminids meteor shower is at its best. For both reasons it could be best getting up early rather than staying up late.

You can check where and when the cloud cover will be using the Met Office's cloud cover map, which allows you see to see what parts of the night will be the best for seeing the sky.

The Geminids meteor shower is a relatively new phenomenon, thought to be caused by the Earth moving through the debris from a broken up asteroid. Rocks were flung across space when the asteroid was destroyed, and as Earth flies through the debris area they collide with our atmosphere and light up for a bright, streaming show.