Shooting stars will be on show across the world tonight with what is considered to be one of the most spectacular meteor showers.

The Geminid meteor shower should be visible from 5pm this evening until potentially as late as 7am tomorrow morning with the possibility of sighting around 120 meteors per hour.

While it may be a dark drive at night, the Brecon Beacons National Park is a great choice for stargazers as it is the first dark sky reserve in Wales.

A dark sky reserve is an accredited area which has an outstanding vision of the night sky while protecting the nocturnal environment with very little light pollution.

The national park was also named by the travel publisher Rough Guides in its top-ten list on the best stargazing spots internationally this year, and the fifth best destination in the world for stargazing in 2012

The Beacons are no stranger to spectacular natural night-time shows as the northern lights are occasionally visible, along with the milky way and various other famous constellations on a clear night.

While there is a lot of rain throughout the day, the skies should clear for an hour around 8pm before clearing again between midnight and 3am tomorrow morning.

The Geminid meteor shower is an annual event which can be seen between December 4 and December 16 with its peak activity being around December 13-14.

It is named after the Gemini constellation as that is the direction the meteors apparently emerge from in the sky.