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Around 8pm our local time last night, I saw a facebook notification about the Geminids Meteor Shower.

I was never interested with Meteor Showers just because I know I won’t be able to see them due to my location. I’ve never heard about people here in the Maldives, talking about Meteor Showers. I usually read about meteor shower sightings somewhere in the US or Australia or in Scandinavia. However, for some reasons, last night, I checked with Mr. Google whether this meteor shower will be visible in the Maldives and Mr. Google said yes, around 12am local time.

I sent a group message about this info from Mr. Google and though the friends showed a little interest, no plan was made.

I was already half asleep, watching korean drama, when the friends decided to go to the bar. They wanted to have drinks but there was no mention of the Geminids.

The group met at the bar around 10pm. I had chamomile tea, one had  milk shake and the rest, cola with some special ingredients.

At around 10:30pm we started seeing ‘shooting stars.’ One in ten to fifteen minutes. Someone suggested to get my camera and try to do long exposure shots but the thought of wasting my time trying something I really don’t know how to do and missing the shooting stars didn’t make me lift my ass off my seat.

The bar closed at 11pm. Some wanted to go home already. But for some reasons, everyone stayed. We moved to the beach and lied down on the soft, cold sand. We listened to the waves. We shivered at the cold breeze. We looked at the sky. We admired the darkness and how it brought beauty to the sky. For without the darkness, who will notice the stars? We tried to figure out which one is the Northern Star, though no one really figured out.  We pointed our fingers to shooting stars. We laughed at our stupid wishes every time a shooting star appears and disappears. I wished to be a wonder woman. Someone wished to have a portal gun. I wished to have a Ferrari while someone wished to have a burger, and a chili chicken and a submarine (a type of long sandwich). We wished that someone wouldn’t fall asleep on the beach. We wished that someone will stop smoking soon. Someone wished for happiness. We wished him happiness too.

At 12am, the shooting stars appeared more frequently. There were 4 at a time, 3 consecutive stars in just a matter of seconds, there were small ones, there were big ones with visible trails.

All our wishes last night would probably just be in vain except for one. For that one wish came true in an instant for those five people who were lying on the beach in the darkness of the night. The stars granted their wish and gave them happiness, the greatest gift that the universe can give.

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About the Geminids Meteor Shower

The Geminids are considered one of the best meteor showers every year because the individual meteors are bright, and the peak can see meteors stream across the sky at rates as high as 120 meteors an hour. Under light-polluted skies, fewer meteors will be visible.

The Geminid meteor shower is nearly 200 years old, according to known records — the first recorded observation was in 1833 from a riverboat on the Mississippi River — and is still going strong. In fact, it’s growing stronger. That’s because Jupiter’s gravity has tugged the stream of particles from the shower’s source, the asteroid 3200 Phaethon, closer to Earth over the centuries.

I kept seeing those 3 “connecting stars” last night but I didn’t know it was the Orion (or part of). My Science teachers will beat me know.

Source: of the info & images here.

Featured image: Old Farmers Almanac