By Jon Schuppe
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — The International Year of Astronomy is drawing to a close, and the global stargazing party’s grand finale arrives with this weekend’s Geminid meteor shower in Inwood.
Jason Kendall will be celebrating atop Inwood Hill Park, the spot where he brings New Yorkers for weekly dead-of-night sky-watching gatherings.
He is arguably Manhattan’s loudest cheerleader for the stars. He writes a blog, has a Facebook fan page and maintains a Twitter account (all of which can be accessed through his Inwood Astronomy Project Web site).
To drum up attention to the International Year of Astronomy — marking the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s use of a telescope — he enlisted his wife, a singer and actress, to record a song about the Italian scientist. The tune has become an official IYA selection.
Kendall, 41, a computer administrator at Cantor Fitzgerald who also moonlights as a stage actor, is touting his Sunday night Geminid viewing as “simple but dramatic.”
“You take a lawnchair up there and relax, and eventually you see little dashes of light flashing by. Occassionally you see a fire ball go by,” he said. “It’s a good show. And this year we won’t have a moon, which is why it’s going to be an especially good one.”
The Geminids, debris from an extinct comet, are considered the most spectacular of the annual meteor showers, though they are often overshadowed by the Perseids shower, which occur in August. At its peak (Sunday night this year), The Geminids can reach up to 100 meteors an hour, and are sometimes colorful.
Kendall couldn’t think of a better way to close out the year.
