Stars offer break from quarantine

Yuma’s outdoors are excellent for escaping, watching Leonids

Out in the desert this weekend, a Yuma Sun staff member looked up at the sky just in time to see a bright fireball streaking down the sky.

It was bright and beautiful, a flash of color in the evening sky, visible around 7 p.m.

Curious, the Yuma Sun did some research, and discovered it’s the Leonid meteor shower – and it’s going on until the end of the month.

According to EarthSky.org, the Leonids occur as the Earth crosses the path of Comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle. The debris from the comet’s trail enters the Earth’s atmosphere and then vaporizes, leaving bright streaks in the sky.

NASA reports the Leonids are some of the fastest meteors out there, and are known for their fireballs and earthgrazer meteors.

“Fireballs are larger explosions of light and color that can persist longer than an average meteor streak,” while earthgrazers “streak close to the horizon and are known for their long and colorful tails,” NASA explains.

The Leonids are named for the constellation Leo the Lion, because they appear to radiate from Leo’s mane, EarthSky reports.

However, you don’t have to find Leo to see these meteors. They will appear all over the sky.

And this year, one can expect to see 10 to 15 meteors an hour, especially between midnight and dawn.

Sometimes, we forget the beauty that nature holds for us.

We slide into the hustle and bustle of life: family projects, work commitments, social events, etc., and we forget to pause for a moment to appreciate all that Mother Nature can offer us.

Yet here we are in the midst of a pandemic, and all those gatherings we once thrived on are now strongly discouraged.

In a time when we are encouraged to social distance and avoid crowded spaces, we are fortunate to have Yuma’s amazing desert landscapes as an escape zone.

We’ve survived the summer, cooped up inside. Now, the weather is perfect, and it’s time to embrace nature again.

What better way to do that than by heading out to the desert, enjoying an afternoon ride, and then sticking around a bit after sunset to check out the stars. … and perhaps a little meteor shower along the way?

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