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On 17 November 1999, a team of 24 enthusiastic Vega Club members had organised a sky observation trip to Naigaon to witness the Leonid meteor shower.The Leonid meteor shower occurs every year from 14 to 20 November, but once in 33 years it reaches the storm level.Many countries in the past have recorded even 10,000 meteors per hour - a real 'COSMIC EXPLOSION'. |
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The reason behind this shower is that the earth passes through the path of the comet Tempel-Tuttle and hence the leftover debris falls into the atmosphere as meteors or popularly,'shooting stars'.
At first the club's president K.R.Nair gave a brief introduction to star finding with the help of planispheres.Then he made us familiar with some of the best known galaxies, nebulae and star clusters.we had a breathtaking view of the craters of the waning moon and the rings of Saturn and four of the sixteen moons of Jupiter through the telescope.
The real excitement began when one of the members spotted a meteor at the zenith.And this was the onset of the celestial display.The peak activity began after 0300 hrs..The temperature scale read 12 degrees celcius.And between 0500 hrs and 0600 hrs. We recorded 173 meteors with an overall count of 411 meteors.
The annual shower reached a height of intensity, as forecast, at about 0730 hrs.,raining down a storm of shooting stars at a rate of about 1700 meteors per hour.But this wasn't seen in India as the sun was already above the horizon at this time.
Around the world millions of astronomers and amateur stargazers stared upwards from dark fields, beaches and mountain tops.It was a rewarding experience watching the sky brightened by the waves of fireballs like lightning during the cold nights of November in a pleasant and pollution-free environment.
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