SHS1 finally saw a shooting star!!!!! Actually, about 134 of them -- 124 of which were in 1 night! 2 hours of 1 night, more specifically!
James and I had talked about going to see the shower, but decided maybe not, because some articles had said the peak would be before dawn on August 12, which would mean a Monday morning, before work. But in the end, we decided to go and I'm so glad we did!
Meteor-hunting, day 1--Sunday, August 11, 2013: We had tickets to an exhibition basketball game today; GB vs Puerto Rico, so that was the first order of play for the day. It was really cool! We got to go inside Olympic venue the Copper Box and the games were really fun. The first was wheelchair basketball--Paralympic Team GB vs Help for Heroes -- it really was amazing to watch. Then it was GB vs PR and although PR kept a bit of a lead at the beginning of the game, GB made it up and kept the lead for most of the rest of the game and came out on top!
Aaaaaanyway. We then took a 4 hour nap before heading out to Alice Holt Forest (we were in the clearing here), which was really great. Unfortunately, it was partly cloudy, so we couldn't consistently see all that much, but we still saw about 10. I had some trouble staying awake when all I had to look at were clouds...but! One time, about .5 seconds after James said (1/50x), 'Natasha? Are you awake?,' we saw the brightest one of the night! A fireball! That was the best.
Meteor-hunting, day 2--Monday, August 12, 2013: As I told Versha, we weren't planning on going on the second night because, although we got the bug and wanted to see more meteors, we were both exhausted--James from waking up from naptime early enough to make dinner and sandwiches for midnight snacks, checking the forecast for clear skies, scouting out a good, dark place to watch from and then mapping us to that place, packing sleeping mats&bags, a blanket, & a flashlight, driving us there, inflating the camping mats, saying "Natasha? Are you awake? Natasha? Did you fall asleep?" every 5 minutes, deflating and rolling up the camping mats and then driving us back again; Me from trying to keep my eyes open and failing. Thanks, Jamessssssssssssssssssss <3 On Day 2, I helped by rolling up the sleeping bag. HOORAY FOR ME. But seriously. Luckily James is a great planner, so everything went pretty perfectly.
I stayed a bit later at work, since I didn't think we were really going back out again, so by the time we decided to, the schedule was eat dinner, nap, head out. But first, James gave me a beautiful pair of earrings just because (pic below) :) :) :) We left a bit later this time, since we saw more of them after 2ish am on the first night. It was a bit chillier than I had anticipated the night before, so I made sure to bundle up a bit more. As we got in the car, I felt like Helen Hunt in Twister. Despite having trouble actually waking myself up, once we were on our way, I couldn't wait to get out there to see more stars shooting every which way! Once we got there, we could see that the skies were sooooo much clearer. We were excited to have seen some shooting stars the night before, but once we saw how clear the sky was on Day 2, it was no comparison and we were glad we had made the trip again -- we could even see the Milky Way!! We saw two before even walking into the forest from the car! Then we lay on the mats and took it all in: the clear sky, the multitude of stars, the Milky Way, and finally, each of the 124 shooting stars, including 12 fireballs, that we counted. I didn't even doze once! It was a beautiful beautiful night and we got to see so much. I loved it.
On a final note, yes, it was beautiful and yes, I loved it, but No. This does not change my feelings about space and ever venturing out into it.
James and I had talked about going to see the shower, but decided maybe not, because some articles had said the peak would be before dawn on August 12, which would mean a Monday morning, before work. But in the end, we decided to go and I'm so glad we did!
Meteor-hunting, day 1--Sunday, August 11, 2013: We had tickets to an exhibition basketball game today; GB vs Puerto Rico, so that was the first order of play for the day. It was really cool! We got to go inside Olympic venue the Copper Box and the games were really fun. The first was wheelchair basketball--Paralympic Team GB vs Help for Heroes -- it really was amazing to watch. Then it was GB vs PR and although PR kept a bit of a lead at the beginning of the game, GB made it up and kept the lead for most of the rest of the game and came out on top!
 |
| Paralympic Team GB vs Help for Heroes |
 |
| Here's my best shot from GB/PR practice...enhanced a teeny bit |
Meteor-hunting, day 2--Monday, August 12, 2013: As I told Versha, we weren't planning on going on the second night because, although we got the bug and wanted to see more meteors, we were both exhausted--James from waking up from naptime early enough to make dinner and sandwiches for midnight snacks, checking the forecast for clear skies, scouting out a good, dark place to watch from and then mapping us to that place, packing sleeping mats&bags, a blanket, & a flashlight, driving us there, inflating the camping mats, saying "Natasha? Are you awake? Natasha? Did you fall asleep?" every 5 minutes, deflating and rolling up the camping mats and then driving us back again; Me from trying to keep my eyes open and failing. Thanks, Jamessssssssssssssssssss <3 On Day 2, I helped by rolling up the sleeping bag. HOORAY FOR ME. But seriously. Luckily James is a great planner, so everything went pretty perfectly.
I stayed a bit later at work, since I didn't think we were really going back out again, so by the time we decided to, the schedule was eat dinner, nap, head out. But first, James gave me a beautiful pair of earrings just because (pic below) :) :) :) We left a bit later this time, since we saw more of them after 2ish am on the first night. It was a bit chillier than I had anticipated the night before, so I made sure to bundle up a bit more. As we got in the car, I felt like Helen Hunt in Twister. Despite having trouble actually waking myself up, once we were on our way, I couldn't wait to get out there to see more stars shooting every which way! Once we got there, we could see that the skies were sooooo much clearer. We were excited to have seen some shooting stars the night before, but once we saw how clear the sky was on Day 2, it was no comparison and we were glad we had made the trip again -- we could even see the Milky Way!! We saw two before even walking into the forest from the car! Then we lay on the mats and took it all in: the clear sky, the multitude of stars, the Milky Way, and finally, each of the 124 shooting stars, including 12 fireballs, that we counted. I didn't even doze once! It was a beautiful beautiful night and we got to see so much. I loved it.
 |
| Earrings from James! My artist's interpretation of the phenomenon, and the beginning of our drive-back-to-London soundtrack: Waiting for a Star to Fall |
On a final note, yes, it was beautiful and yes, I loved it, but No. This does not change my feelings about space and ever venturing out into it.
No comments:
Post a Comment