Tonight, October 21 2022, is the peak of the Orionid meteor shower. The best time to view is after midnight, with a clear night sky away from a city. As usual, I'll go outside after midnight, find a comfortable place to watch the sky toward the constellation Orion, and be severely disappointed.
"and be severely disappointed." Heh - you and me both :)
ReplyDeleteI was. I didn't see even one.
DeleteI . . . was asleep.
ReplyDeleteThat would have been a better option for me.
DeleteNothing will ever match the disappointment in autumn 1973 from Comet Kohoutek and the trek through the woods and to the top of the hill in the cow pasture behind my parent's house, TO SEE A BIG FAT NOTHING! It was supposed to be the brightest comet of the 20th century to the naked eye. Instead, while we were scanning the sky and straining to see anything, the cows snuck up on us out of curiosity, and when we realized they were there, we started to run away. Bad move, because it started a small stampede. We were able to get over and under the barbed wire fence quickly since the cows knew where the fence was and stayed back from it.
ReplyDeleteBy 1997, that was long forgotten, as we got a great show (and I took some great photos) of the Hale-Bopp comet. It was visible to the naked eye for almost a year and a half. I went to a dark hilltop near my house at its peak with my Minolta film camera, a remote shutter release, and a 300mm telephoto lens all mounted on a tripod. I did not subscribe to the spaceship hiding in the tail conspiracy or join the Heaven's Gate suicide cult.
I was disappointed too. Comet West, which I happened to notice one early morning while working offshore, was more spectacular. I had no idea there was one to observe, and found it by accident.
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