Exciting stuff today! Turns out last night was the perfect night to look at the stars! Check out this atmospheric weirdness:
And:
What is all this stuff? It’s NOT a meteor shower, I can tell you that. The quadrantids? I wish they were that cool! Not only that, but the first two burnt up like something unnatural- something man-made. I’m guessing it’s a satellite or a rocket or something. I just can’t figure out why there are so many of them all over the place. Some people are freaking out and skipping town. I’m going to investigate. Apparently there are some on the ground.
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Wow! I’d never even heard of the Quadrantids, and I will certainly be keeping my eyes open. I’m a little confused as, from what I gather, last night’s sighting is two months ahead of schedule?
Do you recall the Leonids meteor storm of ’01? (I think it was, or maybe ’02.) I was in Chatauqua Park lying on my back, alongside dozens of other students and couples; I had my TI-85 out and everytime I saw a meteor, I tapped the equals button (after dialing in “1 + 1 =”). I got up to 532 or so; I’ve written the number down in some random journal somewhere. It was by far the most beautiful night of my life. The bike ride back home was a trip as well; not unlike that dizzy feeling you got when you first looked at Saturn through a telescope (re: planets blog), I felt like I was riding a lightcycle through Tron. It was incredible.
Hi Chris, I’ve clarified the true origins of these videos in my latest blog post- sorry to (sort of) mislead. The first two were actually captured two years ago. While they took place at the right time of the year, they were clearly NOT a meteor shower (and the Quadrantids are not usually worth waking up in the wee hours to observe). It was actually a piece of space junk re-entering the atmosphere.
I DO, however, remember the Leonids of ’01! I was living in Brooklyn at the time and it was the first time I had returned to my rooftop after having watched the twin towers burn down from that vantage point. That particular show was SO spectacular that I was able to see meteors IN NYC (you can hardly see STARS there on a good night)! One spectacular fireball flew right over the city skyline. Incredible. It was just the sort of dizzy small feeling I needed after having been terrified out of my mind for two months.
There are some neat Messier objects returning to “reasonable” observing hours in the next few months. If you have a telescope, I highly recommend you check them out.
I was at Kung Fu standing out side with Kevin the Red when we saw that. It was COOL!!!
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