I need a meteor shower and tonight's the night!
I'm going outside of town, about fifteen miles as the crow flies, out to a dead end dirt road where no one lives and watch the annual Perseids meteor shower. Tonight is the heaviest activity.
From the NASA website:
Got a calendar? Circle this date: Sunday, August 12th. Next to the circle write "all night" and "Meteors!" Attach the above to your refrigerator in plain view so you won't miss the 2007 Perseid meteor shower.
(note: I do this every year for several meteor showers, another good one is in Dec., the Geminids)
"It's going to be a great show," says Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office at the Marshall Space Flight Center. "The Moon is new on August 12th--which means no moonlight, dark skies and plenty of meteors." How many? Cooke estimates one or two Perseids per minute at the shower's peak.
And there's a bonus: Mars. In the constellation Taurus, just below Perseus, Mars shines like a bright red star. Many of the Perseids you see on August 12th and 13th will flit right past it. Instead of following the meteor, you may find you have a hard time taking your eyes off Mars. There's something bewitching about it, maybe the red color or perhaps the fact that it doesn't twinkle like a true star. You stare at Mars and it stares right back.
I've got my little goody bag packed, I'll load it up with some bottles of water and a few small Coke Zeros, my camera and tripod (but I doubt I will be able to take a photo but I will try with a long exposure on some, quick sports setting on others), plenty of batteries and perfect meteor watching music, 3 CDs I made of the best of Pink Floyd.
(Now, some would argue that the Moody Blues might be better, but the Moodies are better for scenic type trips, such as driving down and around in Palo Duro Canyon. )
I'll probably throw in a light jacket, it gets chilly in the pre-dawn hours. Yep, pre-dawn, because I'm not going out there until around midnight or even later. I've got a really nice lawn chair, padded, I'll put it in the back of my truck, park myself where the truck is parked. (rattlesnakes come out and hunt at night, they also like to get out on the roads that still hold heat from the day)
I won't leave until the shower slows down or my Pink Floyd runs out.
August 12, 2007
I Need a Shower
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2 comments:
Saw a few, had camera movie function rolling when two came across the sky, but not for sure they're really on it because it's Quicktime .mov format and I will have to convert it to watch it on anything other than the camera monitor.
Did just like I said, went out to a deserted road, but didn't go all the way out to the ONE because there was some sort of irrigation system or automatic pumping unit that had a bright blue light flashing, some sort of trouble light I guessed. There were a couple others going off in the distance towards that direction, too.
-sigh-
Four vehicles came by in the several hours while I was there, but I was at a triangular piece of right-of-way between the intersections of two dirt roads and the curve of the main highway.
The hwy. dept. had stored a large mound of sand there, so it blocked the lights from the one side of the road.
I parked off the road, with the tires on the very edge of road surface and the rest of the truck was angled downhill. I got in my padded lawnchair and it was perfect for watching the northern sky from east to west.
One car came down the road just a few hundred feet away, this was around one in the a.m. They went down to a farmhouse I THOUGHT was vacant, then five minutes came on back. I dunno if they ever saw me, but I don't see how they kept from it.
On the way out there, I saw several other vehicles parked in turn-outs; I am positive they were watching the Perseids, too.
I forgot my insect repellent, but there was a nice breeze and I've not been bothered by mosquito bites since I cut back on my sugar intake. It DID get chilly, and I forgot my light jacket.
It was so pleasant, so comfortable that I fell asleep for a few minutes.
It was spooky out there, all alone; the only sounds were the roar of irrigation motors, and that spoiled it a bit, but other than that, it was really "lonesome".
Well, I DID have Pink Floyd playing, and that added to the thrill; I felt like a kid around a campfire telling ghost stories.
I really wasn't SCARED, but I DID look around from time-to-time, make sure no Indians were sneaking up on me.
Distant, I should have said, roar of the irrigation motors, the sound ebbed with the wind.
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