The sky was loaded to shoot incandescent rocks that emit glitter in its wake
Like a silhouette I stood, in the center of my house’s terrace, against the light from the waxing gibbous moon and sharp cold breeze, to witness one of my favorite astronomical events — The “Geminids Meteor Shower”. It’s an annual meteor shower that peaks mostly in the second week of December. Witnessing a shooting star (meteor) feels like watching a trail of glitter shooting from nowhere to nowhere, gone invisible within the span of a second. Though scientifically it’s more of an incandescent space rock in the sky, it feels like a magical fantasy to one’s eyes.
The meteors of this shower appears to radiate from near the Castor star of the Gemini constellation and hence the name — Geminids. I tried to map the radiant from the Orion constellation, since the major stars of the Orion constellation was distinctly observable by me from my house’s terrace. The Geminids meteor shower was said to peak around 2 a.m. of 14th of December this year. Few meteors can be spotted without any aiding equipment even a day or two before the peak. I was able to spot a few meteors on the nights of 12th and 13th of December.
To watch this meteor shower (without any special equipment), ideally there should be no moon, clear sky and low light pollution. Unfortunately, this year, waxing gibbous moon stood bright in the night sky, making it a little difficult to watch the meteors. The light pollution in my place was quite high, thus it took me sufficient time to spot the radiant of the shower. And to add more chaos, the sky started becoming cloudy around late evening. Thank the stars, the sky got cleared around midnight, making it easier for me to view the brightest meteors with naked eyes.
I feel elated that I witnessed this event once again this year. I sought solace spending almost three nights watching the sky shoot stars instead of watching my devices’ screen. One day or the other, I hope I will get to gape in fascination at the star packed night sky and witness one of the astronomical events from a place with no light pollution.
