You can see 2021's final display of shooting stars tonight as the Earth passes through a cloud of cometary dust.
The Ursid meteor shower is expected to peak during the night of December 21 and will be visible until the early morning of December 22.
The Ursid shower is usually sparse, producing around five meteors per hour at its peak.
Here's how you can maximise your chances of seeing this cosmic spectacular in Hampshire.
READ MORE: Geminid meteor shower 2021: Met Office update and how to see it in Hampshire
Met Office forecast to see the Ursid meteor shower in Hampshire
The best time to catch the Ursid meteor shower is around midnight and dawn, between December 21 and 22, 2021.
The Met Office forecast for Hampshire currently predicts cloudy skies from around 8pm onwards - but there are ways to increase the probability of seeing the Ursid shower.
To maximise your chances, get away from all artificial lights and allow at least 45 minutes for the eyes to adjust to the dark.
This visual Ursid meteor shower guide, pictured below, shows you exactly where to look.
READ MORE: Pictures - Perseid meteor shower lights up Somerset's skies
What does the Ursid meteor shower look like?
This celestial display is associated with the comet 8P/Tuttle - also known as Comet Tuttle - which orbits the Sun once every 13 years.
The shooting stars appear to radiate from near the Beta Ursae Minoris (Kochab) in the constellation Ursa Minor.
The peak coincides with a first quarter Moon, so weather permitting, shooting stars will still be visible in the night sky.
According to Royal Observatory Greenwich, the meteor shower also occurs around the time of the winter solstice, when there will be long hours of darkness for stargazing.
The meteors, mostly no bigger than a grain of sand, burn up as they hit the atmosphere at 36 miles per second to produce a shooting stream of light in the sky.
Peak temperatures can reach anywhere from 1,648-5,537C as they speed across the sky.
The celestial display will also coincide with a rare planetary conjunction as Jupiter and Saturn will appear just 0.1 degrees apart – roughly equivalent to a fifth of the Moon’s diameter.
This conjunction – where objects appear very close to each other in the sky – will be the closest the two planets have appeared together since 1623.
Both the gas giants will appear to the naked eye as a single bright object in the night sky, which some refer to as the “Christmas star”.
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