Perseids Showers - Bagan Lalang 2010

Perseids meteorites named after the Persus star displays a spectacular show every year in month of August.

I have read about it and always wanting to watch them one day.
I always had a dream of laying on the sea shore and watch the beautiful clear sky with a lots of stars gazing away in a distance.

It finally happened after a long time . Simply that I had the idea planted in my mind and my thought made it work this time, even though it is very late after a long time.
It was the peak show of the Perseid this year. My WS team were organizing this event and I managed to plan my time for it.

It was held at the Bagan Lalang seaside in Sepang. There were about 50 people joined and Selangor Tourism and Malaysia Astronomy team cherished the event with us.

It started with a beautiful sunset. The sun and the sky in the evening were amazing. The sun light across the sky was so vibrant and bright.



The crescent moon and the brightly shinning Venus added more beauty to the dusking sky.
They had BBQ whole night making the night lively. We brought mats , pillows, jacket for the cold night. Some people played music , had some good jokes laughing away while waiting for the spectacular show which will start from midnight till dawn.

The people from the Astronomy Club setup up the telescope to watch the Venus and Jupiter. This was a good opportunity of a life time to see something that I wished for at the most closest distance. I took a glance to view the Venus. It looks much more brighter as I viewed with the telescope. But Jupiter was much more interesting. I was able to observe its stripes across the surface and also the 3 moons around it. One of the moon was very close to the planets outline.

The sea was calm in the evening and also was at its lowest tide where we could not see the water at all. The water was very far away maybe miles away.
I took this opportunity to discover the night sea shore at its lowest tide. It was muddy and dark, I took a torch to lit my way.

It was interesting walking on the mud no water as I went right to the middle of the shore. Still I was not able to see or hear the ocean. I guess it was very, very far away.

In the middle of the nowhere of the beach , I heard crackling water sounds similar like the bubbling. It was pitch black , its just calmness except for the crackling and some laughing sounds from the others at the beach.

It reminded me about the movie PITCH BLACK.I was more curious to investigate what made the sound. I walked deeper heading further where there were water that evening which would have been the deep waters.

As I pointed my light on the ground , to my surprise I was in the middle of a field filled with small tiny crab. They were everywhere on that muddy land. They were the one were making the sound .It’s actually the air bubbles trapped under the layer of that mud. As the crabs find their way out of their hole for fresh air, the bubbles are released.
I could see the air bubble as they pop and the crabs come out. I was observing them for some time and took close up pictures.
I was all alone standing in the middle of that place. Darkness everywhere around me but I was accompanied by the glittering sky and the crawling crabs.
I just watched the sky above me , the sky looks more brighter as I was far away from the light pollution. I could see the sky clearer. I stood there for a while to catch a glimpse of the early perseids for the day since the peak was only from midnight. I managed to not one but two. They were so fast only lasted for half a second.
I felt thrilled looking at a meteorite. I headed back to the shore and joined the rest lying back and watch the show for the night on the shore.
For every 30 minutes to 45 minutes I could catch 1 or 2 but as the it was dawning more were seen for every 15 minutes.
It was getting cold as its heading to dawn , my eyes were getting tired by just staring and waiting the next after next of the spectacular show but I kept my eyes still and open wide to have a count of 20 perseids for the night. I managed to see 21 of them and was satisfied for the year. Maybe I will catch more for next year.

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