rain of fire... (Nov. 19 2001)
[I decided I needed to post this old email, because some of you (like Elsa, for example) do not understand my obsession with meteor showers. I have a feeling that I may not live long enough to ever catch another one that is comparable to the Leonid storm that I saw back in 2001, but... well, after reading this, can you blame me for trying?]
Nov. 19 2001
Hi everyone,
I apologize for the group email, but I am pretty low on energy, and I wanted to say hi to everyone I have been neglecting and tell you about the meteor storm I watched Sat. night (well, technically Sunday morning.)
Between 3:30-5:30am I counted over five hundred meteors (537 to be precise...) I was in a state of awe the whole time, it was undoubtedly one of the most damnedest and most beautiful things I have ever watched. I had driven out to Brazos Bend, because I knew it would be dark enough out there, (that is where the George Observatory is located.)
Sometimes the meteors came in waves and there would be five or six of them streaking across the sky at the same time. In one case four were radiating out from the constellation Leo in different directions like a big X across the sky. I also saw something that I had never seen before, sometimes there were little winking meteors that flashed out of existence so fast they didn't seem to move across the sky or leave any kind of a contrail. These would often occur in bursts, so the effect was as if someone had tossed glitter across a small portion of the sky that quickly flickered out of existence. (I couldn't even begin to count all the little flickering meteors like those because they were gone so fast, so if anything that count of five hundred is way low.)
Most of the meteors were the typical white streak of light, but I also saw the biggest fireball I have ever seen. This meteor was a bright red-orange and it trailed a streamer of red-orange plasma and lasted a good two or three seconds. It was so bright that it lit up the entire night sky like a flash of lightning. Damn impressive!
I had gone out and watched the Leonids once before (I think in '97,) and I only saw maybe a couple dozen over the course of an hour or so. This time I saw more than that in the first 15 seconds that I was out there observing!!!! If I had known that it was really going to be that spectacular I would have given everyone a heads up to warn you, (but I had figured that their prediction for this year was a little bit too optimistic... not so, as it turns out.)
...and for everyone who I invited to come out with me and watch, who decided to sleep instead... well, better luck next time.... ;p
Incandescently,
~ Eric
"...and while they dwelt yet silent by Cuivienen their
eyes beheld first of all things the stars of heaven."
The Silmarillion - J.R.R. Tolkien
“Awake, arise or be for ever fall’n.”
Paradise Lost I, v. 330
[Of course, a lot has changed in the five years since. Light pollution at Brazos Bend has gotten so bad I have heard talk of them closing the observatory there. And, as I discovered Saturday night, even an hour north of Houston it is still far from optimal. Is it any wonder I feel so starved for lack of starlight? Fvck this town.]