Many stargazers eagerly anticipate the stunning, annual Geminid meteor this weekend as the Earth passes through the space debris and dust of an asteroid. The clarity of the meteor shower will depend on local weather, however.

This Saturday and Sunday nights, the shooting stars can be viewed at a rate of one every minute starting 10 p.m. EST. The spectacle will last until dawn. Experts recommend that for one to spot the meteors with the naked eye, one must choose a dark location without any obstructions blotting out the sky.

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To those who want to view the meteor shower online, the Virtual Telescope Project 2.0 will be live streaming at 9 p.m. EST this Saturday.

The meteor shower is best experienced late in the evening while lying down on a lawn chair and gazing up at the skies, said senior editor Alan MacRobert of Sky and Telescope magazine. It will also take some time for the eyes to adapt to the darkness.

This meteor shower is named after the constellation Gemini since its points of origin are located in this constellation. The constellation will begin low in the eastern sky and will stretch up as the night continues.

Most meteor showers come from particles spewed by comets entering the Earth's atmosphere or orbit. The Geminid shower, however, is unique since its debris comes from a small asteroid named 3200 Phaethon.

This meteor shower has been witnessed by many generations all over the world since the 19th century. It was only in 1983 that astronomers pinpointed an asteroid as its source.

Another meteor, the Quadrantids, also come from asteroid debris and not comets like most meteor showers.

Comets are mostly made up of rocks and organic material. What makes the Geminid shower spectacular is that asteroids are mostly made up of rocky materials and metals.

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