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Sunday, April 30, 2006

sleepless sky show

Old habits die hard. I always have a difficult time going to sleep the night before a trip. So the sun gradually starts to climb the hill earlier and earlier now it's 4:30am and soon it'll be 4:00 sharp.

Being sleepless I cleaned and packed, and finally decided to breathe some fresh air that my lung can't remeber ever having existed. While walking in my street admiring the number of chirping birds in sight, I looked up and saw this:





It's not one of those planes doodling in the sky. I know it's hard to make out but what can one really expect from a cell phone camera? The meteoroid charges across right above my head making no noise, but obviously disintegrating as it leaves a trail of burning micrometeorite, lights up the dim sky like a fireworks show. As I'm rushing back to the house to grab the camera it disappears into the other corner. Judging from the direction it's headed it'll strike the Pacific but more than likely it'll just burn out in the atmosphere. What a spectacular display!

Remebering my last meteor shower, in NYC it was a chilly 40-degree early morning in 2001 if memory serves, I don't recall any of the two hundred a minute meteorites to look as clear and slow as this one. It took a good five-minute for it to travel across the entire arc of the sky.

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