Tonight we'll escape the constant glow of the city lights and toward the constellation from which the meteors will appear to radiate. Tonight, nature will provide to us a spectacular light show, where debris from Halley's Comet will light up the sky in this year's Eta Aquarid Meteor shower.
Halley's Comet won't make another appearance in our solar system for close to fifty years, but on the its last visit, in 1986, it left some pieces of itself behind. Halley's cosmic litter has been making biannual appearances in the night sky ever since - once every year.
Meteor watchers call such shooting stars "earthgrazers" and they are known for spectacular long, colorful, long-lasting trails. "Earthgrazers are rarely numerous", NASA meteor sxpert Bill Cooke, a member of the Space Environments team at the Marshall Space Flight Centre has Said. "But even if you only see a few, you're likely to remember them".
Is it worth it? That's for you to decide.
But for me, it's one of life's best experiences. The feeling is so indescribable. The sheer magnificence and beauty, of something so mysterious yet so profound. The wonders of the universe.
This year I've chosen to visit Lake Moogerah again. The scene setting is just perfect. The reflection of the milky way glowing over the silent vast lake of serenity. The silhouettes of the mountains in the background accentuating the calm expanse of the surroundings. This is one of my favourite locations to stargaze one moon-less night.
I've always been a dreamer. This is when I feel most at home. Looking up into the night sky, watching the luminous stars twinkle. Each individual one with a story of their own. How they came to be. Imagine looking at Earth from another star. Just a dot in the sky.
“Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
Now look at the all the others dots.
It really gives you context of the deeper meaning behind the universe. Star gazing is food for the soul. It's the revitalization of our spiritual self. It's a break from our materialistic and shallow aspirations, to work and to spend and to buy a house.. We dreamers seek a higher level of spirituality. This is our home. Let the stars take us away.
