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Saturday, September 01, 2007

 
2:14 PM: bold orion [#] [0]

i was seduced by the promise of the aurigids last night, a potential "meteor storm" at 4:30 a.m.:

"The source of the putative shower is Comet Kiess (C/1911 N1), a mysterious "long-period comet" that has visited the inner solar system only twice in the past two thousand years. In 83 BC, give or take a few centuries, Comet Kiess swung by the sun and laid down a trail of dusty debris that has been drifting toward Earth's orbit ever since. On Sept. 1, 2007, the dusty trail and Earth will meet."

so it sounded very dramatic: we've only seen the comet once every 1000 years and they were predicting >100 meteors an hour. but we only saw three shooting stars, so in retrospect sleeping might have been a better use of time. otoh, the "winter hexagon" was crisp and large last night, with orion standing firmly above the butte and the scarlet star of mars high in the horns of taurus.

but we discovered today that toby was missing. we took him to the field with us last night to watch the stars. we called and called but he didn't respond, so we traced our route back to the field. i was so happy when i saw him lying on the ground next to the gate. we brushed him off, brought him home, and listened to him talk about his "adventure" before letting him take a nap.

i'm glad we have such small dramas.