Meteors on Earth
Annie Yeung (ISB 10)
Staff writer Annie Yeung is a new, fresh-faced addition to the Buddy! family.
In her short but sweet first article “Meteors on Earth,” Annie advocates for greater appreciation for astronomy.
Perhaps if you were to gaze upon the night sky here in Beijing, you would probably not see those shimmering white dots. That's because there is light pollution. But if you were to sit in a courtyard in a late summer midnight in the distant sub-urban countryside, odds are you will probably see the entire Milky Way, where there are trillions of stars of sizes big and small, blinking at you from light-years away. If you are lucky enough, you may be able to see a twinkling shooting star across the dark sky. They only come maybe once every ten minutes, but if you observe carefully enough, you may be able to capture one!! Don't even think of capturing this beautiful scene of the sky though if you are using your phone's camera! You will probably not get anything other than a vacuity of darkness. That's because of the lack of light in the dark so the phone's camera cannot capture it beautifully.
Astrology is vital - regardless of whether one would like to pursue it as a career in the future. It can simply be a hobby, an interest, or a desire to explore and see beautiful things. The good things about watching the sky is that everyone has access to it. It is very often to see a starry night sky, as long as the day is clear of clouds and pollution. You don't need high technology telescopes to observe the night sky. Perhaps you need a jacket: just in case the night is a bit windy. Observing stars is rather a form of mindset, when you gaze upon the stars, you imagine the universe.
A meteor is a comet, asteroid, or meteoroid, originated from outer space that glides through the atmosphere of our Earth and becomes a path of light for a brief amount of time. Meteor showers are just many meteors at a particular time. According to Wikipedia, they are caused by streams of meteorites, though they never reach the surface of the Earth. Meteor showers are absolutely stunning to watch, and the peak for Meteor showers is mostly during the summertime for the Northern Hemisphere. The last meteor shower was the Quadrantid Meteor Shower that occurred on January 3rd, 2020. The next will be on July 28th, 2020, so make sure to watch out for it!
If you are interested in astrological knowledge, for example identifying the moon phase, other planets in the solar system, and constellations one app is Star Walk; it also reminds you of celestial events that you are could be interested in. You can certainly try out apps to download on your phone to study the night sky.
All photos in slideshow taken from Star Walk 2 Application. Highly recommend downloading it!