The Vermont Muench Family Blog

Manchester, Vt. - Across Vermont, people stepped out in the dark to look up at the sky last night for a look at the Leonid Meteor shower forecasted for last night.

Standing in the dark at the Manchester Recreation Park, Bill Muench, a teacher at Burr and Burton Academy in Manchester, Vt., had an unexpectedly large crowd gathered at 4 a.m. to witness the night-time spectacle.

Muench described the scene, “We had adults, community members, teachers, and there was quite a number of students. I think we topped a hundred!”

“It was just a wonderful experience with everybody getting together and we finally had a clear sky where we could do some viewing.

“We brought the laser out,” he said referring to a bright green pointer often used by astronomers. “We did the constellations, checked out Mars. It wasn’t the most spectacular meteor shower but it was just a great group of kids,” he said, getting the thumbs up from a couple of sleepy-eyed kids.

Tim Dexter, a 17-year old student at the Academy, was one of those who attended the star-gazing Tuesday morning. ”There were a lot of people there. Everybody was just out in the field, they all had their sleeping bags and we were all just laying down looking up at the sky. Some people went over and started making fires for breakfast. Everybody just migrated over there because it got really cold, “he said a bit bleary-eyed as his school day started.

“It was worth it,” he said. “It was like a combination of learning experience and social event. It was a two-fer,” he said. Students huddled together around the fire that morning kept track of how many streaks they spotted zipping across the star-studded backdrop.

Muench pointed out how appealing the event turned out to be for the younger crowd. ”Half of those kids couldn’t make it to school on time on a daily basis,” he said.

“They were there early for a 4 a.m. meeting to view the meteor shower.” Muench said he wasn’t sure beforehand if there would be 5 or 50 people. He said, “I’m especially thrilled that so many people can still get excited about celestial events like this and turn out for it.”

-Vermont Daily News staff report