A heartwarming tale of Geminid meteors
Many observers reported being disappointed by last week's peak of the annual Geminid meteor shower. Some said clouds spoiled the view, as they did here one night. Others reported a scarcity of Geminids and wondered wether the shower is in decline.
But there was one genuinely enthusiastic report from a young family who watched the show together and were paid back handsomely for their patience and persistence. It was reported this weekend on meteorobs.org, a listserve group dedicated to year-round meteor observations. This is how meteor-observing is supposed to go:
"We got ourselves ready and out about 9:30 to watch for about an hour and saw about a dozen meteors. Mostly we did this 'cause we were ready and took advantage of the last of the unusual warm spell we've had in the SE USA and promises of a great show. I had an inflatable mattress that leaked and my partner was totally unused to being outside in the dark and ... My digital camera had dead batteries, so that didn't work out either."Clouds also began to roll in and it was chilly, though I had brought two blankets and we wore coats and I had two hot water (bottles) Thankfully they didn't leak.
"Sounds like I did just about everything wrong. I didn't take careful notes, my camera was dead, we came out way too early, didn't look very long and the mattress leaked so I was laying on hard ground in the cold before we were done. And as soon as my partner got to the mattress it was all "I don't think this is a good idea."
"And after the first meteor my four year old daughter was drinking the Kool-Aide.
"WOW!!! DAD!! DAD!! What was THAT!" jabbing at the sky....
"That was my daughter's first meteor. From then on she was all into it. She caught meteors I missed and even pointed out all the planes. She didn't want to come in even as my back started to get real sore and she began to shiver and cuddle up against me for warmth.
"Mostly we saw earth grazers - some crossing up to 90 (degrees) of the sky. Most were as bright as Mars and several much brighter. Several presented a kind of flaming appearance as they zipped kind of slowly across the sky. One left a trail that lasted a second as it sputtered across the sky. All were kind of yellow which stood one when the one meteor not from the Gemini radiant streaked more dimly straight north (Gemini was still in the east) which was white-blue in comparison.
"I did also keep an eye on Comet Holmes which seemed to have a slight tail to it.... My daughter caught a greenish tinge to it.... Her first comet too!" - Steven Kolins"
Comments
:-)
She continues to ask about our next chance to see meteors. We've not made it out yet again but still enthusiastic! She's see's lightning bugs and says their meteors or lightning in storm clouds and says they're meteors too. We're working on it!
Posted by: Steven Kolins | July 16, 2008 10:29 AM