"The freedom and simple beauty is too good to pass up" : Christopher McCandless, Into the wild
Nature is so awesome, its display every single second is unique. Sleeping under stars on highest mountain of Georgia for a wonderful display of Leonid Meteor shower. Its so beautiful, cant even afford to blink our eyes to miss the beauty. Shivering, windy yet so beautiful..
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| At Brasstown Bald, Georgia's highest point. all photo credit : Rakesh Raj |
Not many days you could watch meteors falling from sky at the rate of 15-20/hr..It was my first time and I was lucky to see 12 of those on one night. All my family and friends had diwali in India last week. I missed the fun and celebration, same week coincidentally I found that there's gonna be Leonid meteor showers in mid November. peaking showers on 16th midnight through 17th dawn. First thing that came to my mind was, yes this is my Diwali time and I should not miss it. Moreover forget meteors,its so awesome to just sit out and watch sky from top of a mountain, far away from other light pollution. Winter winds blowing through forest. Also there were few aspects which made this Leonid showers awesome.
It was on a weekend, friday night
Crescent moon so, no much light pollution from moon
NASA predicted at least there would be 15-20/ hr
Based on history,Lenoids sometimes surprise with huge storms
Nature has never disappointed me till date. Its always been awesome.
So to get full experience of this, I found that Brasstown Bald is highest point in Georgia ,4500 feet closer to stars :) and 90 miles away from any big city. Yeah to watch the awesomeness of sky with every single star smiling at you, there should be absolutely no light pollution. Add to this, we can drive to the summit's parking lot late in the night after school. And to keep us awake it was subzero temperature with cold breeze.
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| Start Trail with summit tower. |
I asked my friends , after so many yes-no iterations.. finally we were down to 5. Also since photographers love this event, I called my friend Rakesh Raj and soon he told he will be ready with his 2 DSLR cameras with all required lenses, accessories for the night out under stars. Me, Rakesh Raj, Vivek Sagar, Pramod and Mohan Sitaram decided to go for it. And we were the only 5 in the mountain.
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| Observe closely bottom left. :) |
I missed to take my camping stove. It would have been ideal in cold weather to make some hot chai and drink while watching falling stars..damn:)
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| Me and Vivek Sagar laying down under stars not to miss the beauty. @ Sub zero temp and high winds.. |
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| Summit Parkind lot, Me Vivek, Pramod,Rakesh and His Cameras.. Car shielding us from winds |
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| We are that far from city.. View from summit in morning |
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| Summit Tower. |
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| ha ha pressure cooker on some galli shop while coming back. |
more amazing pics from experts :
http://www.flickr.com/photos/yahooeditorspicks/galleries/72157632049623101
http://www.space.com/18509-leonid-meteor-shower-2012-photos.html
some details
http://www.chiff.com/science/leonids.htm
http://mountainview.patch.com/articles/leonid-meteor-shower-2012-peak-weather-forecast-where-and-when-to-watch-1f1b18cb
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/20/leonid-meteor-shower-2012-return-tuesday_n_2162177.html
Cheers
Designing flying machines is my Passion,
Nature and Adventure sports are my religion,
Food is my god:)
Prajwal Supertramp;)
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