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(meteorobs) The Countdown Has Begun...
Hi List,
As the Away Team departs for China - Clear Skies and lots of action, guys! -
this might be a good time to take a step back, a deep breath, and look at
where we are now, and what's about to happen...
I don't know about you, but with just over a week to go until the Leonids I
feel kind of like one of those guys in a white lab coat from the film "Close
Encounters", standing at the base of Devils Tower, waiting for the Mothership
to appear... I know something's going to happen, but not what, exactly; I
know I'll see something, but not what, exactly; I know, weather permitting,
that I *will* see shooting stars, but not how many, exactly. For years I've
read about the Great Storms of 1966, 1833 and earlier, imagined what it would
have been like to have been under those falling skies, felt impatient that
the next Storm was so far away... and now suddenly it's just around the
corner, ten sunsets away... I feel just like I did in the weeks leading up to
my first sighting of Halley's Comet: impatient, tense, nervous... come on,
look me in the eye and tell me you don't feel the same... but oh, it's a
wonderful, horrible, feeling, isn't it?
There are people on this List all over the world, scattered all across the
face of this planet. I invite you all now to take a mental trip with me...
rise up from the chair where you're sat reading this now, fly up above your
house, your town or city, your country, and keep going, fly on and on until
you're high above the Earth. Further still, until you can see the Moon close
by... then Venus orbiting inside, and Mars outside... Looking down you can
see our planet shining in the dark ocean of space like a delicately painted
Christmas tree ornament, a fragile glass orb painted blue, white and green,
surrounded by jewel-like stars... and over there, in the distance, you can
see a misty smudge, trailing what looks like a stubby cloud of vapour behind
it - a comet, leaving ribbons and streamers of glittering dust behind it...
Look closer, imagine you can accelerate Time itself, and you'll see that soon
the blue world will plough through the river of dust left by that ancient,
crumbling iceberg...
And when it does there's a good chance that the people on the darkside of our
planet will see their sky light up; their eyes will reflect the flashes,
sparks and flares of thousands of shooting stars... first they'll simply tilt
their heads back and stare, open mouthed, in disbelief, then they'll laugh
and celebrate, maybe turning round and round on the spot as the stars fall
all around them...!
I could be one of them, you could, no-one knows. Yes, we have predictions,
bucket-loads of them, but the bottom line is that no-one knows just when the
peak will occur! We're all players in the biggest Lottery of all time here!
Only one thing is certain: if there is a Storm, some of us will see it, and
others - probably most of us - won't. There'll be winners and losers on the
night, and celebrations and wakes the following day. I wish everyone on the
List luck, sincerely I do, while quietly hoping that the Storm occurs over
*my* part of the world... which will, of course, disappoint many of my
fellow meteor watchers on this List. I feel elated and sad at the same time.
November 16th (or 17th, depending on where you are) is going to be an
extraordinarily tortuous day for everyone on this List, a day spent looking
up at the sky every other minute, praying the sky stays blue and clear, or
hoping desperately that the cloud breaks after sunset... but we're all in
this together, so, before the action begins I'd like to take a moment to wish
everyone on the List luck, and encourage everyone to enjoy the adventure
which we're embarking on. And we are, you know! This is the first potential
Storm (let's not mention the Draconids, hmm?!!) of the Internet age, the
first time that meteor watchers all over Earth will be united, capable of
sharing the experiences of thousands of others across the planet. Whatever
happens, we'll ALL be involved, either through seeing and reporting it, or
reading about it. Here, now, at this wonderful moment in time, we're United,
in anticipation, excitement (and, yes, dread, dread that after all the
waiting, all the build-up and nail-biting, nothing extraordinary will happen.
It's a possibility no-one's really mentioned, maybe we're all just assuming
that someone, somewhere will win this Leonid Lottery. All we can do is cross
our fingers), the first members of a Net meteorite mailing list to experience
a meteor storm together, as a community.
Next time around - whenever the next time *is*, that's kind of up to Jupiter
and its gravitational influence! - it will, literally, be a different world.
There'll be a thousand times as many Net users, real time enhanced video of
the display as seen from the Moon - amazing views of Earth's darkside
sparkling and scintilating under the meteoroid bombardment, imagine that! -
and, most likely, full immersion VR which will let everyone "go" to the
country witnessing the Storm, to "watch" it as it happens... But we're here,
now, and we're the First to do this, to share this. And, whatever happens, if
I see a hundred or a million meteors, I'll be glad I experienced the 1998
Leonids with all of you.
Clear skies everyone... and you guys heading out to China, take care. We're
with you.
Stuart Atkinson.
Cockermouth, UK.
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