Everything you need to know about the Ursid meteor shower

Anyone fancy some last-minute stargazing in 2025?

If the answer if yes, you're in luck because the Ursids are about to begin.

They're the final meteor shower to peak this year and they will start lighting up the sky later this week.

Here's everything you need to know about the Ursid meteor shower and how best to see it.

The Ursid meteor shower take place every winter in December.

The meteors, which are also known as shooting stars, appear as streaks of light in the night sky.

They occur when the Earth passes through the debris of a comet or an asteroid.

The material, which is usually bits of rock or ice, hits our atmosphere and burns up due to the friction, and we see this as flares of light.

The Ursids originate from the dust of Comet 8P/Tuttle.

It takes around 13.5 years to travel around the Sun in its oval-shaped orbit.

As the meteors appear to come from near the Ursa Minor constellation, it's therefore known as the Ursid meteor shower.

According to the Royal Observatory Greenwich, this year's Ursid meteor shower will be active between 17-26 December, peaking on Monday 22 December.

The Ursids are not as well known as some of the other meteor showers.

This could partly be because they tend to produce fewer meteors - only around ten per hour.

However, the good news is that because the Ursids occur so close to the winter solstice, there will be many hours of darkness in which to try to spot them.

You don't need any special equipment to view the Ursid meteor shower.

Find a clear space away from street lights, or the light coming from your house, as you want to be in the darkest place that you can.

If you're in a big city, the light from the city will likely dazzle too much so you probably won't be able to see the Ursid.

Give your eyes enough time to adjust to the dark, around 20 minutes or so.

Don't look at your phone either - as the brightness from it will affect how your eyes have adjusted to the dark.

1. Wrap up warm.

2. Turn off all the lights around you.

3. Be patient - it might take a little while to see something special.

4. You'll need to wait for a bit for your eyes to adjust to the darkness.

5. What else can you see? Write down your observations.

Good luck, meteor spotters.