Geminids Meteors and Qatar; A tale to remember

What if I told you there exists a moor, far away from the hustle and bustle of the city life, a rocky land with tiny mountains covering the surroundings. The place is pitch dark during waning moon and covered with hues of blue while under the spell of a waxing moon. This place is Al-Kharrara that is some 100 kms away from Al-Wakra in Doha City of Qatar.

Now, close your eyes and imagine a clear blue sky, full moon is just a day away and the place looks like a canvas ready to be painted. In those alleyways of imagination choose a mat of your choice cover yourself in warm cozy fleece blankets and lay down facing the sky. Feels like a scene from a movie, doesn’t it?

What if I tell you this was for real? On Friday, the 13th December 2024, the lands of Al Kharrara prepped themselves to host more than 6000 astronomy enthusiasts. The skies impregnated with mysteries were ready to unload some meteors tonight. Geminids Meteor Shower is an annual occurence in Doha and the moorness of Al-Kharrara serves as an excellent vantage point to watch the sky.

Though the moon served as an envious lover gazing the shooting stars along with the spectators, yet it failed to disappoint them completely as during the peak hours meteors rained from every corner of the sky.

They say perseverance is the key to achieve anything in life and the same goes true for Ajith and Navin. Ajith Everester, is a man of grit and infinite knowledge of the sky. He is a renowned astrophotographer and founder of the Everester Observatory and has been stargazing for more than two decades now. He says, “the Geminids this year stood against all odds and created magical moments for the stargazers.”

Navin Anand, a man of  “one liners” and “epic humour”, is a Qatar based astronomer and co-founder of the Qatar Astronomy and Space Club. He says, “We have been planning this event for weeks and we are in awe of the response, our aim is to promote awareness among Qatar’s residents towards Astronomy and to introduce the younger ones to the brilliance of night sky.

The volunteer camp had four tents that were providing food, first aid and resting facilities respectively. A team of nurses and doctors from United Nurses of India-Qatar (UNIQ) were present for any unwanted mishap. Portable toilets were within 100 meters of the camp.

Sitting with the other volunteers and while having dinner Ajith looked around the volunteer camp. A sense of relief with a smile of gratitude was seen on his face, he took a deep sigh and said, “We did it Navin, this is a dream come true, food, medical team, washrooms, meteors, we have it all..”

As if the skies were looking to pay their obeisance, no sooner had he finished his sentence than we saw a shooting star trailing right overhead. With robust energy Navin exclaimed, “oooooo..did you see that, this makes everything worth for, it makes people return every year with more attendees, what a beauty, it’s all worth it!”

Both are having dinner but their hearts and minds are filled with gratitude as they are witnessing fruits of their perseverance.

According to Navin and Ajith the crowd each year turns up with just the word of the mouth. Since last year the turnout of the spectators in thousands increased their expectations, this year they made a website and took the registrations while they also kept a tally by keeping manual signing of the visitors.

“From an infant to an elderly, every person here at Al-Kharrara today is making history”, chuckles Ajith.

The registrations at the time of writing this article were past 6k. “We have applied for the International Book Of Records”, Navin says enthusiastically.

The able team of volunteers were divided into teams that were handling the registration desk, traffic and the crowd, Ajith and Navin were patroling each section at regular intervals. Though the volunteers had met each other for the first time, yet the camaraderie felt ages old. From manning the traffic to handling the registrations to pumping up the enthusiasm in the participants, Ajith and Navin along with the volunteers did it all. A team of 37 volunteers managed a crowd of more than 6000 specatators. A world record indeed.

Safari hypermarket of Doha had sponsored refreshments and dinner for the volunteers and before the peak hour started, the volunteers were being requested to take their working dinner in batches of twos and threes.

Every year in August and December, Qatar experiences a magnificent astronomical phenomenon in the form of a meteor shower called Perseid and Geminid respectively.

The Geminids are known for their spectacular, bright fireballs and steady meteors. Meteors are short streaks of white light, fireballs though often exhibit yellowish or white hues, occasionally appearing green, red, or blue.

“As Earth orbits the sun, the sun’s gravity pulls dust and small rocks from the parent asteroid, 3200 Phaethon’s orbital debris. When our planet passes through this debris, it burns up upon entering the atmosphere, resulting in shooting stars”, Ajith and Navin were seen explaining to the spectators.

While the Geminids peaked on Friday night, NASA noted that the meteor shower will remain active until December 24 but with reduced count.

The preparation for this event started a month back with setting up communities on the whatsapp and facebook for circulation of messages and later on setting the instagram page for sharing memories.

Norvina and Shaheer hails from Kerela, India and had seen 4-5 meteors upon entering. They were looking forward to viewing more, as they were settling with their mats and blankets. The night revealed numerous fireballs, which were no less than eye candies and shined brilliantly with hues of orange and blue creating a marvelous spectacle. The night created lifetime memories for many, who attended the Geminids 2024 Public Observation event organized by Qatar Astronomy & Space Club in association with Everester Observatory.

Jabir and Tanzeer along with their two kids thoroughly enjoyed the show, “So far we have seen 15”, they said.

Zeeshan, Munsheer, Abhishek, Abhijeet were camping in their sedans and were sipping hot kadak (qatar’s beloved milk tea), when asked about the event they said, “This is insane, the moonlight and the sky looks beautiful, so far we have seen 25-30, we are expecting more.”

The crowd was overjoyed with the arrangements and lauded the organisers saying, “Thankyou for educating us about the stars.”

Shamna, a volunteer from Kerala, India while manning the traffic said, “I have been into stargazing since my childhood, this event is a dream come true.”

Subeena, another volunteer, is a homeopathic doctor by profession but on Friday clad in a safety vest was handling the responsibility of jotting down attendees names manually.

Yaqoob who works with Qatar tv, participated as a volunteer and was seen hopping between jobs, from crowd management to helping at the registration desk, he was all hands whenever needed.

Maryam and Abdul were volunteering their best, while making sure the volunteers were fed at the right time, each of the volunteers were taking entries to reach the world record.

The spectators pumped up with enthusiasm were eager to fill in their names for the world record. A family of ten was asking where to register, the kids were eager to pen down names, questions like, “What is a world record?, Oh! Is that Venus?, How to gaze? were overheard”, volunteers with utmost patience were seen answering and escorting participants.

The youngest of the spectators was a 10 days old infant who along with parents was seen in a tent. While the infant slept through the night, the parents stargazed and imbibed the serenity of the moonlit terrain.

The nationalities that attended the event hailed from India, UK, Ukraine, Philippines, Egypt, Sudan and so on.

All in all it was an event to relish for ages to come. Navin in his prophetic manner said, “One day this day shall turn into a national festival.”

The Geminids meteor shower started at 10PM on Friday night and went on till dawn. As per Ajith, there was a non-stop flow of incoming vehicles till 3AM. People gathered from every corner of Qatar, some even from far north.

Al Kharrara is one of the prominent dark places in Qatar, which offer easy accessibility and a serene landscape. It is away from heavily populated areas and gets exceptionally dark at night.

The reactions from participants spoke volumes about the event’s success. Each streak of light evoked collective gasps from stargazers, shouts for meteors and screams for fireballs.

Qatar Astronomy & Space Club regularly conducts Astronomical observation events to increase general awareness towards Astronomy among Qatar residents. If you are interested to join the club, register yourself for free at https://qatarastronomyandspaceclub.com or follow them at @qatar_astronomy_and_space_club on their newly launched instagram handle.

P.S- All pictures are courtesy Qatar Astronomy and Space Club