I just came back from an exhilarating night-time walk.
The night is the best time to walk: cool, quiet, and, if the sky is clear, there’s a vast celestial show playing on the biggest screen you’re ever gonna see.
Even in my rather light-polluted environs, the Milky Way was clearly visible. The familiar Big Dipper was huge and obvious; other constellations known, guessed, and imagined were bright and glorious.
To put the icing on the cake, I saw a a shooting star – a meteor. Wow! I have to say I feel really blessed whenever I see a meteor because so many of them are so incredibly brief … a few seconds and that’s it. Turn your head and you’ve missed it. This one was bright, but lasted only about 2-3 seconds before it burned down to nothing.
Perhaps it’s a percursor of the Perseids, which are due to peak in just a few days.
My only problem tonight is that I’m now too invigorated to go to bed!