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Denis Urtheil had just sat down for his smoke break Tuesday night outside a state office building on Curry Street when he saw the flash in the sky to the north.
It was a brilliant bluish-white meteor with a long tail.
It lasted for only about three seconds, disappearing below the northern hills.
Urtheil, 67, who is on the building maintenance staff, was awed. He's seen plenty of meteors scratch across night skies, but this was different.
"It was so big," he said. "I've never seen anything like that before."
It reminded him of a scene in the 1950s film "War of the Worlds when the flying saucers streaked to earth.
Urtheil's story made me think of a night in September when I was running on Sunridge Drive south of Carson City. It was so dark it was as if my feet were landing in a lake of black ink. That's when the brightest meteor I'd ever seen streaked through the sky to the northeast. It was there and gone in just a few seconds and as bright as a camera flash. It seemed so close that I scanned the valley for any sign something had crashed to the earth.
At first I didn't know what it was, but as I ran the next half-mile staring into the sky, I systematically eliminated everything that it was not, including fireworks and crashing planes.
Urtheil's experience and mine made me wonder if there's something unique about this valley and the meteors that fall here. So I called Robert D. Collier, a professor of physics and astronomy at Western Nevada Community College. He confirmed we'd seen something special, but not really that unique. As a man who spends a lot of time looking into the sky, he's seen and been awed by several bright meteors. Some were so close they cast his shadow on the ground. On others, he's seen smoke trails.
But meteors don't fall here in any greater frequency than anywhere else, nor are the ones that fall here larger than anywhere else in the world. We were just lucky to have been looking into the sky when they arrived.
That's not to say there's not something special about our night sky, said Collier.
It's dark.
That may seem an odd thing to say about a night sky, but he explained that many cities cannot make that claim. Reno's sky, for example, isn't nearly as dark because of all the lighting, and by comparison isn't a very good place for watching the stars.
"We're blessed with dark skies," he said.
That's why he and many members of the Western Nevada Astronomical Society are backing a proposed ordinance to regulate the kinds of outdoor lighting that can be installed in Carson City.
"We want an ordinance that really safeguards our skies because it's a real treasure," he said.
It's not that the group opposes street lights or yard lights in newly developed areas. They just want them aimed downward.
In fact, they'd like to see some of the area's biggest light "polluters" move toward lighting that doesn't point upward, including the prisons in Carson City.
"If the canopy of the sky over Carson City is inundated with lights, that's going to mask all these things we see and enjoy," he said. "Our children, everyone will miss out on this thing we have."
The supervisors are likely to take another look at the proposal early next year. Some of them want to make sure the ordinance would still allow projects where lighting would be pointed upward to illuminate exterior walls.
It will probably take compromise to resolve that issue, but Collier said the supervisors have plenty of incentive to vote yes. Those dark skies and the WNCC observatory could be another selling point for Carson City as it works on a plan to encourage tourism.
I told Collier it wasn't that long ago that many people would have labeled anyone talking about light pollution a whacko. He agreed, but times are changing. It's a growing trend to control stray lighting, not only because it hides the stars, but because it wastes energy. If you want to read more, you'll find everything you need to know at www.darksky.org.
The meteors that I referred to earlier would still have been visible in a brighter city, Collier said. They probably wouldn't have been as dramatic.
Those meteors that seemed so huge to me and to Urtheil were actually pebble-sized or smaller, he said. Thousands of them pierce the earth's atmosphere each night at more than 20 miles per second. Most disintegrate more than 30 miles above earth and are never seen.
And here's a final tip from Collier. The WNCC observatory is open to the public every Saturday night at dusk. It often stays open until after 10 p.m.
• Barry Ginter is editor of the Appeal. Contact him at 881-1221 or bginter@nevadaappeal.com.
It was a brilliant bluish-white meteor with a long tail.
It lasted for only about three seconds, disappearing below the northern hills.
Urtheil, 67, who is on the building maintenance staff, was awed. He's seen plenty of meteors scratch across night skies, but this was different.
"It was so big," he said. "I've never seen anything like that before."
It reminded him of a scene in the 1950s film "War of the Worlds when the flying saucers streaked to earth.
Urtheil's story made me think of a night in September when I was running on Sunridge Drive south of Carson City. It was so dark it was as if my feet were landing in a lake of black ink. That's when the brightest meteor I'd ever seen streaked through the sky to the northeast. It was there and gone in just a few seconds and as bright as a camera flash. It seemed so close that I scanned the valley for any sign something had crashed to the earth.
At first I didn't know what it was, but as I ran the next half-mile staring into the sky, I systematically eliminated everything that it was not, including fireworks and crashing planes.
Urtheil's experience and mine made me wonder if there's something unique about this valley and the meteors that fall here. So I called Robert D. Collier, a professor of physics and astronomy at Western Nevada Community College. He confirmed we'd seen something special, but not really that unique. As a man who spends a lot of time looking into the sky, he's seen and been awed by several bright meteors. Some were so close they cast his shadow on the ground. On others, he's seen smoke trails.
But meteors don't fall here in any greater frequency than anywhere else, nor are the ones that fall here larger than anywhere else in the world. We were just lucky to have been looking into the sky when they arrived.
That's not to say there's not something special about our night sky, said Collier.
It's dark.
That may seem an odd thing to say about a night sky, but he explained that many cities cannot make that claim. Reno's sky, for example, isn't nearly as dark because of all the lighting, and by comparison isn't a very good place for watching the stars.
"We're blessed with dark skies," he said.
That's why he and many members of the Western Nevada Astronomical Society are backing a proposed ordinance to regulate the kinds of outdoor lighting that can be installed in Carson City.
"We want an ordinance that really safeguards our skies because it's a real treasure," he said.
It's not that the group opposes street lights or yard lights in newly developed areas. They just want them aimed downward.
In fact, they'd like to see some of the area's biggest light "polluters" move toward lighting that doesn't point upward, including the prisons in Carson City.
"If the canopy of the sky over Carson City is inundated with lights, that's going to mask all these things we see and enjoy," he said. "Our children, everyone will miss out on this thing we have."
The supervisors are likely to take another look at the proposal early next year. Some of them want to make sure the ordinance would still allow projects where lighting would be pointed upward to illuminate exterior walls.
It will probably take compromise to resolve that issue, but Collier said the supervisors have plenty of incentive to vote yes. Those dark skies and the WNCC observatory could be another selling point for Carson City as it works on a plan to encourage tourism.
I told Collier it wasn't that long ago that many people would have labeled anyone talking about light pollution a whacko. He agreed, but times are changing. It's a growing trend to control stray lighting, not only because it hides the stars, but because it wastes energy. If you want to read more, you'll find everything you need to know at www.darksky.org.
The meteors that I referred to earlier would still have been visible in a brighter city, Collier said. They probably wouldn't have been as dramatic.
Those meteors that seemed so huge to me and to Urtheil were actually pebble-sized or smaller, he said. Thousands of them pierce the earth's atmosphere each night at more than 20 miles per second. Most disintegrate more than 30 miles above earth and are never seen.
And here's a final tip from Collier. The WNCC observatory is open to the public every Saturday night at dusk. It often stays open until after 10 p.m.
• Barry Ginter is editor of the Appeal. Contact him at 881-1221 or bginter@nevadaappeal.com.
