PANAJI: With the last of the spectacular Geminid meteor shower scheduled to occur in the wee hours of Saturday and Sunday, Goa’s astronomy enthusiasts began heading to higher altitudes and remote areas by late Friday evening.Every year comets pass through the earth’s orbit and leave behind a lot of debris in space. When the earth passes through that area, its gravity pulls the debris into its atmosphere resulting in a huge number of meteors on a particular night.On the weekend, the debris from the asteroid 3200 Phaethon will throw up a bright cosmic display of meteor shower.“This is a very regular meteor shower and it never fails dedicated observers. It is a beautiful display of about ten to 30 bright, bluish slow-moving meteors,” astronomy enthusiast Atul Naik said.Enthusiasts from the Association of Friends of Astronomy (AFA), Goa, headed to Cabo de Rama. They said that they expected the sky to be starkly clear there.In Panaji , their observatory at Junta house will be open, but members discounted any serious opportunity to watch this annual meteor shower from the observatory.“The light and haze of pollution, white coloured hoardings on the river front and the lights from casinos have robbed the observatory of 50% of its earlier visibility. We can hardly do any observations now,” one member said.The rooftop village of Surla in the Sahyadris, which is accessible after crossing into Karnataka, is the best bet for enthusiasts. “A few dedicated enthusiasts are planning to do observation and astrophotography of the event here,” president of the association, Satish Nayak said.

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