GOOD news - we have a meteor shower coming up that will actually be worth going out and watching, writes STUART ATKINSON. Most of the meteor showers during 2017 have been ruined by bright moonlight, but next week's Geminids shower will be wonderfully Moon-free, so weather permitting we should be able to see lots of shooting stars.

The peak of the shower occurs overnight next Wednesday night into Thursday morning, with the greatest number of shooting stars visible after midnight, but the number of meteors visible in the sky will be rising gradually through the rest of this week.

The Geminid meteor shower - which gets its name from the way that its shooting stars all appear to spit away from the constellation of Gemini - is one of the year's most active showers, producing lots of bright and colourful shooting stars. As for how many we'll see, there's no way of predicting that, even though you'll see crazily high numbers quoted on social media. All we can say is that next Wednesday night, if it's clear, we will see more shooting stars than usual.

So, if you can, go out after 10pm that night, get away to somewhere really dark, as far from streetlights and light pollution as possible, look up and wait. It won't be too long until you start to see shooting stars. But be patient; you might have to wait several minutes in between shooting stars. But the really bright ones will make it worth the wait.