Star-watching - seldom effectively, but worth the wait!

If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown! But every night come out these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile.

From Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1936. 

I look for the moon, planets and stars from my back garden every morning and night, at those times of year when darkness allows (currently, we only get about seven hours of daylight - so that bit is easy!).

I say "look for" because we live nearish the centre of a biggish city, and in England - there is always light pollution and often clouds or mist. So I can only seldom actually get a good view of what I am looking for in the skies. 

However, somewhat as with Emerson's example above, this does make my rare instances of successful star-watching more special.  

Last weekend, I emerged in the evening and saw a shooting star streak across the eastern skies; then on doing later research I discovered this was part of the annual Geminid meteor display - so called because it is centred near Castor and Pollux the heavenly twins in the constellation Gemini - which was due to peak in another day or so. I saw no more that evening. 

Next morning; I walked-out at about six, and immediately saw a brief horizontal streak, then a long vertical meteor, which lasted a "long" time - more than a second - and changed colours as it descended in the south west. I watched it all the way. 

This seemed very special. Indeed, I may have been the only human to have seen it!

A few minutes later I saw another short quick streak, out of the corner of my eye.

So much for the Geminids 2025! Because through the whole of the next two days, the skies were obscured. 

That sustained and multi-coloured, vertical shooting star was my ration.

But all the more precious for its rarity.