TheBanyanTree: Watching the Geminids

[B Drummond]

I stayed up and watched the Geminids last night.  We had excellent
meteorological conditions for it here.  A clear sky, no moon, and a 
cold, relatively still night made for what were near ideal conditions. 
It was not as active a night for meteors as I was hoping for though.

I didn't get a chance to start watching them until around midnight local 
time. They were supposed to be near peak around that time for overhead 
viewing.

We had a cold night (well, at least cold for us) with an overnight low 
of around 28 degrees.  It is 29 degrees as I write this at 8:45 AM.

Because of the cold my plan was to lay out on the deck, pillow under my 
head, quilt between the deck and, me and several blankets over me to 
help keep my legs and feet warm. (Couldn't find the durn sleeping bag 
that I know I have although I looked in all the usual places.)

My torso was kept warm by a down jacket and my hands protected by some 
ski gloves.  On my head was a baseball cap.  I was comfortable for the 
main part, but the cap didn't want to stay on my head while I laid down 
with my head on the pillow. If I turned my head, off came the cap. What 
I really needed was a knit "watch cap" like Kevin Spacey wore in "The 
Shipping News".  That woulda' done the trick.

So I watched the skies for about an hour and a half, seeing some 
excellent meteors, many super fast "blips", and about 6 or 7 quite 
notable ones that crossed large parts of the sky, starting out faint, 
then glowing brightly ever so briefly before finally disappearing.

This I read from CNN's website:

"Geminids typically encounter Earth at 22 miles per second (35 
kilometers per second), roughly half the speed of a Leonid meteor. Many 
Geminids are yellowish in hue. Some even appear to form jagged or 
divided paths."

22 miles a second is 1320 miles a minute, which is almost 80,000 miles 
an hour.  Imagine traveling that fast!  A passing jet appeared to be 
standing still compared to the speed at which the meteors were traveling 
last night. And these meteors are slow compared the Leonids typically 
seen in August.  Those come screaming into our atmosphere at around 
160,000 mph.

For me it was thrilling being outdoors in the late night, breathing in 
fresh, albeit, freezing cold air, and oblivious to the cold by ample 
clothing and cover.  It reminded me of camping along the Chipola river 
as a teenager.  With those cold, clear winter nights, watching the 
occasional meteor flash across the sky, going to sleep under a mound of 
covers, warm, snug and so happy to be alive was I then.  It just seemed 
that I felt more alive outdoors, that somewhere in the deepest part of 
me that I belonged outdoors.

And last night I was reminded that I still do.

I still belong outdoors on cold, starry nights; watching meteors enter 
our atmosphere and burn up in a hail of light and unbelievable speed, 
breathing in frosty air, laying on my back and falling asleep under 
those stars that remind me that I am not just a man, but a integral part 
of an infinite universe, one that is so marvelous that it can never be 
understood or explained fully.



   bd
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