Losing Leonids

On the whole, I have lousy luck with meteor showers. 

Last week, I hauled myself out of bed, and after dressing in the living room, went to the roof some time after 5:30 am, to see if I could glimpse some Leonid meteors.

The first thing I saw when I stepped over the high sill leading to the narrow fenced in walk leading to the other stairs was Orion the Hunter.

I haven't seen him in a couple of years, mostly due to eyesight problems and the fact that he generally hangs out in the southern portion of the winter sky at night, while our apartment faces a hill to the north.

It was a crystal-clear pre-dawn sky, which is why I was there, and it was startling to see that mythical rapist, so stark against the black sky.  There was a peach-coloured planet above his left shoulder, and a brilliant star twinkling near the southern horizon to his right.  A very bright, moonlight-casting quarter moon was in the east, and I moved into the shadow of the building, noting a couple of lit windows in the facing buildings.  Neighbours needing to rise early -- or bed late.

Looking up, I saw no meteors, but two "stars"moving slowly but steadily -- one headed north, the other south.  They seemed to pass each other not quite directly over my head.  Some minutes later, another southbound dot, too high and compact to be airplanes.  Satellites?

I stood, leaning against the wall, craning my neck for about twenty minutes.  No meteors, even with Leo in the south.  The city of Victoria causes a fair bit of light pollution -- although I remember seeing stars clearly when I was a teenager.

I didn't feel cold until I descended the stairs, having eschewed the elevator, which had been making strange noises. I didn't care to be trapped at 6 am.

Shivering belatedly, I found a web site that gives you a map of the night sky at any given time, in any given city.  The screen shot above is Victoria's sky looking southwest, at the very date and hour that I was gazing from the roof of our building. The peach planet was Mars.  The brilliant star was Sirius.  Well, of course Orion would be out with his dogs, like a number of my neighbours below, just before daybreak.