Seeing stars.

I listened carefully to the instructions given by the very knowledgeable lady on the radio yesterday.

It all seemed easy to follow, except I wasn't quite sure which direction north was from my garden. But Dad came to the rescue with a very handy compass app on his phone.  After a few minutes standing outside and shaking his phone to get the right calibration we had established which way we should be looking.

So, I waited until after 10.30pm last night, turned off all the lights in my house, then went outside and set my deck chair to face north.

Did anyone else join me in watching the light show?

Apparently this happens every year, and this year we should also be able to see the International Space Station!

By the way the lady (I can't remember what her name is, or what her qualifications were?) on the radio said that we should see up to 20 per minute.  At least that's what I remember her saying.  But as I can't remember her name that number could be suspect too.

Anyway...  I made a cup of coffee (decaff!  I didn't want to be up all night!!) turned off all the lights and went outside.  I didn't want to miss any of the excitement.

I thought I was going to see something that would look like the man in the moon turning on his Christmas tree lights and setting them to 'flash'!  It was a very still night and there were a few clouds, but I even tho it wasn't quite what I expected, I did see 5 shooting stars in the time that it took me to drink my coffee.  It was nice to see, and a little bit exciting.  I stayed a little while after my coffee was finished, and saw a couple more but I lost count and started to get cold.

I didn't see the Space Station, or maybe I did and didn't realize what it was, but I was most surprised by the amount of planes that went by while I was sitting there.  I didn't know I was on a flight path.  They were quite high up and not very noisy, so maybe that's why I have never noticed before.  Also, I am not usually out that late looking up at the sky!!  And where are all those people in the planes going at that hour of the night??

While I was sitting out there, freezing under my blanket, drinking my coffee to try and keep warm, Rusty kept me company:

He wasn't quite sure what he was supposed to be looking at, but he was delighted to be let stay up so late.

I kinda wish I hadn't stayed up so late, as now I feel that although I didn't miss out on the shooting stars, I did miss out on some sleep...