A Night at Cherry Springs

The situation due to COVID-19 pandemic has surely been unprecedented and a trip at these unsafe times seems far-fetched. But, every cloud has a silver lining and so did we. With a plethora of news about the Neowise comet, I also learnt about the double meteor shower that was expected to glisten the night sky on Tuesday (07/28) night and into the early morning hours of Wednesday (07/29). It was the Southern Delta Aquarids and the Alpha Capricornids. Neither of the two showers was considered major, but together they were expected to bring around 15-20 meteors per hour.

It was in the first week of March that we took our last trip to the mountains of West Virginia, just before the imposition of the pandemic lockdown. It has almost become customary for me to take a couple of trips to admire the beauty of nature for the last five years. The pandemic had me believe that I wouldn't be taking a trip throughout the remainder of the year and had left me deeply downhearted. Fortunately, I learned that Pennslyvania played host for one of the 7 best places on the planet for stargazing. It is also the only stargazing state park in the East Coast of the US. And the fact that it was just a 2 hr drive from home put me on cloud nine. I started tracking the weather forecast in Cherry Spring's official website. Luckily, Tuesday night sky was as clear as crystal. Immediately, my roommate Sumukha and I organized a trip to Cherry Springs. Five others signed up for the one-night trip. We hired, as Ankush would put it, a "Soccer Mom car", the Dodge Grand Caravan for our commute.

After having our dinner on Tuesday night, we picked up the rest of the crew: Nishanth, Vishaka, Ankush, Niranjan and Shiva at headed off towards Cherry Springs at 10:30 pm. After about an hour of drive in the highways, we entered into thick forest regions. We drove for another hour through the heart of Susquehannock State Forest to reach Cherry Springs at around 12:45 am. We also spotted about 15-20 deers on our way.

Even before we got down the car and walked to find ourselves a spot, Sumukha spotted a meteoroid. The moon had not set and the sky wall still bright. We chose a spot to lay down and enjoy the meteor shower. We slowly began to see the milky way arch emerging out. Meanwhile, every one of us had spotted a meteor but for me and Vishaka. For the first 15 mins, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't spot a single meteor. Meteors never showed up wherever I had my eyes on! Finally, I could spot one. It was absolutely spectacular and exquisite!! A golden flash of light just rocketed across a small part of the pitch dark sky within a fraction of a second. The only way I can describe it is that the earth-sky duo together was one huge planetarium. The sky was the biggest screen one has ever seen and earth seated us to watch the magnificent movie that nature had to offer us. All I had in my mind was what lies behind the depths of what meets the eyes.

Over the next 3 amazing hours, we took a lot of pictures, we spotted about 30-40 meteors, brightest stars of the night sky such as Vega, Arcturus, Antares, Polaris, satellites (we could actually see them move at incredible speeds), the galactic centre of Milky Way, constellations such as Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Aquaris, Pisces, planets such as Jupiter, Saturn, Mars and even Venus during the early hours of Wednesdays morning. More than anything, just lying down and looking at the arch of Milky Way was (literally and figuratively) "out of this world". Finally, at 3:30 am we decided to head back home. And for the finale, the sky presented us with one last breathtaking view of a meteor. We were able to see observe the tail of that meteor for almost 5 secs!! The whole night was stunningly magical.

After enjoying the glorious show, we headed back and reached our homes at around 6 am. Although it wasn't a long trip that I wanted, it was a night spent well!! It was satisfying!! It was amusing!! It was just too beautiful!!

Dream. Travel. Explore.