I think I saw a shooting star on the way home from work tonight. Damn thing scared the piss out of me! I was driving along when suddenly, this green and white light appeared in the sky to the left of me. At first I thought it was a flare, then I thought that it might be someone setting off some fireworks, but when there was no bang and it quickly faded out, I figured it must have been a shooting star. I’m surprised it didn’t hit the road in front of me!
That’s your neighbors coming home after a hard days work. Check their car for space dust and re-entry damage.
The Perseids are coming. I love meteor showers.
The Heavens-Above website will let you plug in the city where you live, and it will list all sorts of orbiting objects that are visible from your back yard, including the international space station, Hubble space telescope, and any of the iridium satellites. All you have to do is supply a clear night for viewing. Sorry, no asteroids or meteors are available at the moment.
Still, it’s cool to look up, see a light streaking across the sky, and say, “We put that star there”.
Horseflesh: It wasn’t a convertible, was it?
Skeezix, neighbor’s never had anything parked in his driveway as cool as a Rambler convertable. If he had, I’d have been over there like a shot!
Even cooler, a '59 Corvette.
Just don’t touch the green sphere.
Warning: since the above website deals with Heavy Metal stuff, there might be nudity, semi-nudity, or the odd butt-cheek on that page. I didn’t notice it at first. Sorry about that.
Just a brief update. I did get confirmation that it was a shooting star and not something else (like fireworks). I talked to a buddy of mine the next night and he saw it too and he was a good 30 miles away from where I was.
Shooting stars are awesome!
I saw one once, in 1997, out in Huxley, Iowa. I was walking the mutt out by a cornfield at midnight or so and for no reason at all I looked north. Not a quarter-second later, this light appeared in the north, heading due south. It went from the horizon to overhead in about three seconds, so bright that it left a trail behind it and I hallucinated that I could hear it. I was shaken and awed by it, and in fact as I type this I have goosebumps. A visitor from who-knows-where burning up in our atmosphere. It was amazing.