Geminid Meteor Shower

[sierra_le_oli]

The weather forecast promised partially clear skies for tonight, so I walked over to the edge of Victoria Park to see the Geminid meteor shower. As there won't be a new moon for a couple of days, there wouldn't be any moonlight to make viewing difficult

Comments

[arwen_lune]

It always makes me smile when some of the London kids experience a first clear night watch on the ships. It's pretty awe inspiring. I guess if you've never seen differently, you think there's just a few stars because you can occasionally, and only, see the brightest out there.

I miss my horse's old boarding stable near Otterlo. On some nights you didn't need to turn on the lights of the arena because the moonlight was bright enough to light your way.

[sierra_le_oli]

Yeah, London kids. An Aussie teacher I know took her class out on a day trip and was puzzled when they all stopped to gawp at the sky. There was a big flock of birds wheeling above them. Apparently, they'd never seen anything like it.

The thing these kids don't know...

[ruthi]

We were fighting the darkness! We were marching with Progress! It was going to be ALL BETTER.

I have never seen the milky way as people talk of it.

[cream_t]

What were these humans thinking when they separated themselves from the stars?

"Let's stay down here, there's oxygen - and beer!"

[silly_swordsman]

What were these humans thinking when they separated themselves from the stars?

"Shield us from the reminder of what we cannot reach, of how small and brief and insignificant we are."

No place with good night skies could ever become a global financial center, occupied with selling imagined dreams of vaporous riches.

[furrfu]

It has to be said that the southern hemisphere get a better, brighter view of the milky way than we do here. But still, London is probably about the worst place in the country.

I'm not too unhappy with the night sky here, it's better than most bits of Belgium.

But imagine how much energy we could save, and how much beauty we would re-gain, if people used properly shielded lighting that only went where needed, rather than wasting it on the sky...