15 Dec 2015

Geminids meteor shower lights up NZ skies

6:29 pm on 15 December 2015

An annual meteor shower continues to light up the sky - but only for another night.

A photographer looks at the sky at night to see the annual Geminid meteor shower in northern Italy.

A photographer looks at the sky at night to see the annual Geminid meteor shower in northern Italy. Photo: AFP

The Geminids meteor shower is best spotted in the early hours of the morning.

John Drummond, the director of the comet and meteor division at the Royal Society, said despite the brightness, the meteors were very small.

"Roughly they're the size of a grain of sand - some of the brighter ones, which are as bright as the brightest stars in the sky, are getting slightly larger, maybe up to the size of rice or a pea, so they're quite small, but they're actually whizzing through the atmosphere at about 35 kilometres a second."

Mr Drummond said the best time to spot the meteors was between 2am and 3am, in the eastern part of the sky.