Technologies

Geminid 2021 meteor shower peaks tonight: How to see the shooting stars

Winter sky watchers will want to bundle up for a show that tends to deliver year after year.

This year’s Geminids, the annual meteor shower the American Meteor Society calls «the most dependable» on its calendar, reaches peak activity on Monday night and Tuesday morning.

The Geminids become active each December when Earth drifts through a cloud of debris ejected from the large asteroid 3200 Phaethon. It’s unusual for a meteor shower to trace back to an asteroid rather than a comet, but this asteroid acts a little bit like a comet in the way it shoots dust everywhere.

While the Geminids can be relied upon to produce meteors, unfortunately this year they’ll be competing with a bright moon much of the night. In most locations, the best viewing opportunities may come in the chilly early morning hours after the moon sets but before the sun rises, roughly between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. local time.

The Geminids are also among the brighter and more colorful meteor showers out there, making it worth bundling up to confront the cold temperatures that many skywatchers in the Northern Hemisphere will have to contend with. Unfortunately, while meteors are visible south of the equator, the Geminids are significantly less impressive.

If you just can’t make it outside in those off hours, it may still be worth venturing out in the evening hours in the hopes you may catch a bright fireball known as an Earth grazer. Look toward the northeastern horizon before 11 p.m. local time and you just might get lucky.

If your only window for observation comes when the moon is still up, you can try to put something like a building or a tree in between the moon and your viewing site. This obviously restricts your overall view of the sky, but might prevent so many shooting stars from getting washed out by moonlight.

Whatever your viewing plan, be sure to get as broad a view of a clear sky as possible, with minimal light pollution. Lie on your back, give your eyes time to adjust and just relax and watch. Try to allow at least an hour for the entire experience, which means you’ll want to dress appropriately and bring some snacks.

Finally, if Monday night and Tuesday morning just don’t work out, the following night should also provide an impressive display, but keep in mind that the moon will set about an hour later.

Best of luck, and stay warm out there.

Technologies

This Transformable Electric Truck Could Become the Cheapest EV in the US

Merging retro touches with a high-tech electric platform, the Slate Truck offers a customizable, budget-friendly alternative to traditional EVs.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for April 27, #686

Hints and answers for Connections for April 27, #686.

Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections puzzle might make you hungry — especially if you spot the four words in the blue category. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times now has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group, to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Do the math.

Green group hint: Tresses.

Blue group hint: Munchies.

Purple group hint: Think Stockholm.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Calculator buttons.

Green group: Amounts of hair.

Blue group: Salty snack unit.

Purple group: Swedish ____.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is calculator buttons. The four answers are equals, minus, percent and times.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is amounts of hair. The four answers are lock, shock, thatch and tuft.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is salty snack unit. The four answers are Combo, Goldfish, Ruffle and Taki.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is Swedish ____. The four answers are Chef, Fish, massage and meatball.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for April 27, #420

Here are hints — and answers — for the NYT Strands puzzle No. 420 for April 27.

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Sleep used to be so simple, but now it can be complex, as we try to add in extra things to help us get that good night’s rest. Today’s NYT Strands puzzle highlights sleep assistance, and a few of the words are tricky. If you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: Sleep tight

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Zzzzz…

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints, but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

BEDS, MINE, TAKE, TAKES, TAKER, STAKE, LATS, EARL, PLUG, PLUGS, ROUT, MIKE, DATE

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you’ve got all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers: