janet kwan photography

Every year when the Perseids or the Leonids or this year’s Aurora Borealis come around, bad weather or the light-polluted night sky of Toronto makes it almost impossible to see any cosmic light show. This year, we got lucky because the sky was clear, the temperature was just right and the air was crisp.

A couple friends and I drove out to the David Dunlap Observatory in Richmond Hill to see if we catch the meteor shower.

We were told that we could see about 1 meteor per minute, but it was more like 1 every 15 minutes. There were a couple good ones though! One was really bright and had an orange tint to it. I saw it out of the corner of my eye because it was so bright. I kept wondering what the difference was between a meteor and a shooting star. Any astronomy experts out there?

The big telescope

Telescope from the outside