WEBMASTERS TALES
Sighting
In the summer of 1983, (if memory serves) I was
living with my mother and stepfather in Lakeview, Oregon. I had heard
about an expected meteor shower, and on the night when visibility was supposed
to be the best, I went out into the yard with a blanket and laid down, hopefully
watching the sky.
Sure enough, I was rewarded for my patience by
seeing a large number of 'falling stars' as bits of the comet's tail passed
through our atmosphere and burned up. I'm not sure how long I lay out
there in the dark - I believe it was for about 2 hours.
I happened to notice a bright star almost
directly above me. I was gazing at it without staring, wondering if
perhaps it could be a planet, when suddenly it began to wildly zigzag in
straight lines in a large pattern. It did this for a minute or two, moving
too fast to keep my sight on it - I ended up staring in surprise at the area it
was moving over. As suddenly as it started , it stopped.
Now, I'm aware that it's fairly easy to fool the
eye, and I understand that if you look at a star long enough, it will seem to
move in slow, lazy circles. What I saw was definitely NOT that phenomena.
Nor was it from the comet...
I got up and went back inside the house.
Somehow, comet watching had lost it's appeal...
-Webmaster.
