Jupiter and Fireflies

Last week after Scott's birthday party it was a particularly clear night. We were still energized after some karaoke singing and coffee ice cream that was not decaf.

There was a particularly bright object rising in the East so I got out my telescope. It was Jupiter and the four moons were very clearly visible as well! It was a lot of fun to hear Gaby and Liana's joy in seeing the details of Jupiter including the stripes with their own eyes for the first time. Even the adults, including myself, were pretty excited.

Over the last few weeks I have appreciated the fun we have as team. Sometimes it is coordinated, and sometimes it is spontaneous. Singing karaoke ballads, a rousing game of Boggle, cooking a meal together, looking at Jupiter in the night sky... team fun takes on many forms.

After we saw Jupiter, I printed out the equatorial star chart for November and saw that just a few days later the Leonid meteor shower would be visible. We brought out chairs and stretched out on the hammock looking at the night sky looking for meteors.

It was a hilarious endeavor. We were all staring intently into the sky, and someone exclaims "I saw a meteor!" followed by "Never mind, it was a firefly..." The fireflies in Mundri fly pretty high, so it is still under debate whether anyone saw any meteors, but we saw satellites and LOTS of fireflies.

In the dry season especially in Mundri, the night sky is spectacular!