Unlike MamaKitty and Jen, I did get to see a few shooting stars. I didn’t get to see a shower of them (like I did in 2004), but in the 2+ hours that I spent outside last night, I’d say I got to see about 25-30 meteors, which is “astronomically” more than what my teammates saw :P
As I was contemplating the sky last night, I wondered how great it would’ve been to have gone out to a darker location. Cholula is a small town with its share of light, but it is only 10km west of Puebla (with 5+ million people), and about 100km east of Mexico City (with 21+ million). That’s a LOT of light. Good thing we have the volcanoes as a buffer, and that’s where my observation concentrated last night as I saw 95% of the meteors there:
In spite of the long exposure, it wasn’t enough to get a single faint shooting star
I focused in the area between Taurus, Auriga, and Perseus, just off Gemini. I saw about 7-8 longer, brighter meteors, but most were very short and faint.
The “star” of the night
There was one single meteor that blew me away. It came rather soon —the third one— and before midnight. It appeared somewhere between Aldebaran and the Pleiades and headed in the direction of Orion’s bow. How incredible is that?!
I can’t imagine the size of meteor it must’ve been because it looked more like a fire ball, and a seemingly low one; it was quite large. With a very-bright silver tail, its head was a very bright purple, with some white, and maybe a dash of golden rushing through the heavens. There it was, for a couple of seconds, so ephemeral, yet so breathtaking… I’ll always remember it; it’s stuck in my mind.
I hope that with this depiction, my teammates can visualize that incredible meteor, at least in their imagination :)
As I was contemplating the sky last night, I wondered how great it would’ve been to have gone out to a darker location. Cholula is a small town with its share of light, but it is only 10km west of Puebla (with 5+ million people), and about 100km east of Mexico City (with 21+ million). That’s a LOT of light. Good thing we have the volcanoes as a buffer, and that’s where my observation concentrated last night as I saw 95% of the meteors there:
In spite of the long exposure, it wasn’t enough to get a single faint shooting star
I focused in the area between Taurus, Auriga, and Perseus, just off Gemini. I saw about 7-8 longer, brighter meteors, but most were very short and faint.
The “star” of the night
There was one single meteor that blew me away. It came rather soon —the third one— and before midnight. It appeared somewhere between Aldebaran and the Pleiades and headed in the direction of Orion’s bow. How incredible is that?!
I can’t imagine the size of meteor it must’ve been because it looked more like a fire ball, and a seemingly low one; it was quite large. With a very-bright silver tail, its head was a very bright purple, with some white, and maybe a dash of golden rushing through the heavens. There it was, for a couple of seconds, so ephemeral, yet so breathtaking… I’ll always remember it; it’s stuck in my mind.
I hope that with this depiction, my teammates can visualize that incredible meteor, at least in their imagination :)
See more progress on: watch the geminid meteor shower
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