Not being able to sleep, I went outside around 2:30 AM and just looked up for a while.
Out here in the boonies the night sky can get really dark. The main stars of Sagittarius all looked like first magnitude (compared I guess to a memory of what they looked like when I lived close to urban areas). The Milky Way looked like a bright cloud formation stretching across the sky, with the Cygnus/Aquila split really obvious, and the galactic center above "the spout" shining brightly. I could just start to make out the North America nebula to one side of Deneb.
It didn't take but about five minutes before I saw a brilliant white meteor streaking from Cygnus through Lyra to the "head" of Ophiuchus. Its path appeared to classify it as an Omicron Draconid. A few more shot through the sky, but no bolides (darn!).
Two thoughts occurred during this viewing session. First, I wondered how many HBers who cook up their schemes have ever taken time to go out and enjoy the majesty of the night sky, and see, first hand, what is
really happening "out there". It's not scary, it's beautiful and inspiring!
Second, I wondered how many amateur astronomers spend a good chunk of time doing this, just looking at the night sky and taking in its magnificence. I think there are a lot of us doing this, and just about all we see we understand. This would fly in the face of those HBers who claim that amateur astronomers don't count re what's going on in the sky, because they're looking at small fields of view.
Well, sometime we do, but I'd bet that just as often we're looking at wide fields of view offered by binoculars and our own eyes. And, except for just a few instances, what we see, we understand. But understanding doesn't prevent the view from being awesome and thrillingly beautiful.
Just a late night "observation".
