Meteor shower

An interesting article in the paper advised of an upcoming meteor shower last week, with the best viewing day being Thursday and slightly before dawn.

I decided I would make an effort to try and see this and when I found myself awake early on Wednesday, I decided to don my dressing gown and see what I could see.

Readers were told to look to the north east towards one of the bright starts in that direction.

I have a sun lounger which I often find myself on during the day. I pulled this out and found it was perfect to do my night viewing as lying comfortably on it, I was already facing the sky. I sat back and accustomed myself to the stars. I am not normally one to spend too much time gazing at night; often I am a little afraid. As a kid I frequently accompanied my father flounder fishing and he would point out the various constellations, but I haven’t done a lot of star gazing since then.

It wasn’t long before I saw my first meteor, followed by a second in quick succession. There was a long pause, maybe 20 minutes or so before the next two darted across the sky, again, one after the other. I realised I needed to train my gaze slightly higher in the skies. I saw three more during that hour.

But what surprised me during this exercise was how alive the night sky was at that hour in the morning. Remember, my vision was trained in the north easterly direction and in that time I saw the star link satellites gliding past. They were slightly to the right of where I was looking and disappearing almost in front of me as they went below the horizon. Travelling in the other direction, from left to right, were about three satellites. If not these, then high-flying planes. It made me wonder what was happening on the other 270 degrees of the night sky that I wasn’t looking at and in those areas not visible to us here in the Southern Hemisphere.

I live in the northern most part of the North Island of New Zealand. The reason I said they may have been planes was because theoretically planes could have been coming into Auckland from further afield though I did not see the traditional flashing lights. I am pretty sure they were satellites.

Daylight comes and the night sky becomes invisible but it really was eye opening seeing just how many objects are passing us by, constantly, with our complete day time unawareness.

I was pleased with my seven shooting stars and decided that I’d try again the next day. However, on Thursday it was raining with zero visibility, so I was pleased I had made the effort the day before.