The annual Geminid meteor shower is underway and already skywatchers have been treated to its reliable performance in advance of a strong weekend display.

The shower peaks before dawn Saturday. It will offer a shooting star every few minutes, at least, plus a lengthy peak that could provide as many as one or two shooting stars each minute for observers in North America with dark skies.

Meanwhile, late night and especially early morning hours between now and the peak could also prove worthwhile.

Skywatchers in Europe, Asia and Australia should see a slightly less dramatic display in the pre-dawn hours of Dec. 14, with rates likely to approach one meteor per minute.

The Geminids, in fact, are thought by many astronomers to be the most consistently delightful of all the annual meteor showers. Partly because of cold December weather, however, the event is less heralded than the summer Perseids and the sometimes-showy November Leonids. But with proper preparation namely warm clothing the Geminids are a sure-fire treat, seasoned meteor watchers say.

"Getting up a few hours prior to sunrise on Saturday morning will be the most rewarding," advises amateur astronomer George Varros. "The Moon will have already set a few hours prior and will not interfere with meteor viewing as it did with the Leonids."

"Go out and look up!" he said.

Varros should know. He has become something of an expert at snapping dramatic video footage of meteors, including an explosive fireball he captured on Dec. 7, the night the Geminids began.

Varros developed a Meteor Tracker instrument for this purpose. It uses two cameras. One has a wide field of view to detect and track a meteor, and the other zeroes in on the shooting star and provides a high-resolution image. Varros is a computer programmer by day and does contract work for NASA.

The Geminids are created when Earth runs through a stream of small space debris, most of it between the size of a sand grain and a marble. Along the path of the debris travels a large object called 3200 Phaethon. Interestingly, astronomers aren't sure how to classify this space rock. The path is comet-like, but the object does not sprout a fuzzy head and tail when it nears the Sun.

Astronomers generally suspect that 3200 Phaethon is a burned out comet and that the Geminid meteors are bits of it left behind a thousand years ago or more, on previous orbits, before the comet had exhausted its volatile surface material.

The shower gets its name from the fact that its meteors appear to stream out of the constellation Gemini, which is almost directly overhead in the pre-dawn hours this time of year. While the meteors all move away from this so-called radiant, they can begin and end anywhere and should be visible all over the sky.

Another interesting viewing opportunity comes Friday night, when Gemini is just emerging above the eastern horizon. Skywatchers with a good view of the horizon around 8 p.m. could see dramatic "earthgrazing" meteors that are longer-lived than the average shooting star. Be warned, however, that these earthgrazers are rare and even a lot of patience might yield zero sightings.

As Friday night wears on, however, and Gemini rises, general activity should pick up each hour because more of the meteors will begin their brief journeys from above the horizon.

Meanwhile, random meteors not associated with the Geminids should grace dark skies roughly once every three minutes in the pre-dawn hours on any morning this time of year when the Moon is not in the sky.

Experts advise wearing ample warm clothing to fend off the chill. A lounge chair affords a great view of the entire sky and allows you to avoid having to crane your neck. Binoculars and telescopes are not useful, as meteors move too quickly for optical aids.

Geminid action will fall off rapidly after the Saturday morning peak.