All eyes were on the skies Tuesday night in Braintree, Massachusetts, as students and community members gathered at the high school to get a glimpse of what's known as the strongest meteor shower of the year.
About 100 people came together on the school's athletic field between 9 and 10 p.m., a peak time to view the Geminid meteor shower.
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"I'm so excited," said Sabrina Wise, president of the Braintree High School Environmental Club. "I don't know that much about space, I'm more earthbound, so I'm excited to learn about what's going on and see some stuff. I just saw my first shooting star of the night."
According to NASA, with peak activity and clear skies, people can see 100-150 meteors per hour during the event.
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"My uncle over there put me in front of a telescope when I was 5 years old, and I just fell in love with space ever since," explained Calvin O'Brien, a member of the club.
O'Briend created "Black Out Braintree," a project in which students asked people to turn off their lights to make viewing easier.
"I thought, 'Hey, we can reduce light pollution, and we can view some beautiful things in space,'" he said.
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Physics teacher Molly Fitzgerald advises the club and helped orchestrate the viewing party.
"I think as a teacher, it's been really cool to see how much interest this has generated," Fitzgerald told NBC10 Boston. "This is a really cool experience, to just kind of see how wonderful our planet is, and hopefully feel some broader connection to the world around us, which will help us, in turn, be more conscious about environmental issues."
The peak of the Geminid meteor shower is expected to last through Wednesday night.
