Perseid Meteor Shower

[Admin]

Mrs. Admin and I loaded the car at 10:30 last night with our two dogs and AmyZ's dog we're dog-sitting and headed 80 miles out into Utah's West Desert to Knolls.

No, we weren't dropping off the dogs. We were watching the annual Perseid Meteor Shower:

https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=212075877780839390366.0004c7154640d31631705&msa=0&ll=40.723193,-113.267412&spn=0.034606,0.062914&t=p

I wanted a site far enough away from the light pollution of the Salt Lake Valley and flat enough to afford horizon-to-horizon views of the sky. The West Desert was perfect.

We headed down the graded road to the Knolls OHV area far enough away from I-80 to avoid the lights from the freeway and the one Amtrak train that rolled by in the middle of the night. As the blue pins on the map indicate, we saw two other groups of stargazers with lawn chairs watching the show from closer to the road.

Our chosen spot was one huge flat area that probably serves as an off-road parking lot of some sort in the daylight. It worked out fine. We spread a blanket and all three dogs came and went from it. We laid back with a pillow and opened a bottle of wine. Jake headed out and returned to the blanket with some old sock that he somehow found in the middle of the desert. Temperatures were perfect with a slight breeze.

We stayed until nearly 2 am and we were back home by 3. While there we saw a bunch of meteors and while the frequency wasn’t really what I was hoping for, it was a really cool show nonetheless. If you can find the right viewing spot over the next day or two it's worth checking out.

[Marc_C]

Jake headed out and returned to the blanket with some old sock that he somehow found in the middle of the desert.

You're certain that was a sock, right?

While there we saw a bunch of meteors and while the frequency wasn’t really what I was hoping for,...

Star-geeks were saying "up to 100 per hour", which would work out to a very rough average of one every 40 seconds or so, which also means there can be minute-long gaps between individual meteors, followed by a short flurry. The exploding ones are way cool though.

Of course there are some meteors you don't want, when they leave behind things like this:

[Tony Crocker]

Star-geeks were saying "up to 100 per hour",

I've not been too motivated for these annual events after viewing the Leonid meteors November 18-19 of 2001 and 2002 from ~5,000 feet on the Angeles Crest Hwy. Astronomical sources said the rate in 2001 was ~3,000 per hour. An individual in a dark clear sky location will see ~60% of that theoretical rate. The rate was supposed to be similar in 2002 but there was a full moon then so we saw less than half as many as in 2001. The 2001 event was on a Saturday night and I've never seen as much traffic on the Angeles Crest. It took from 3:00-4:30AM to drive ~30 miles down the crest and home.

[Admin]

You're certain that was a sock, right?

I admittedly didn't check to make sure that there wasn't a foot in it.

[snowave]

Star-geeks were saying "up to 100 per hour",

I've not been too motivated for these annual events after viewing the Leonid meteors November 18-19 of 2001 and 2002 from ~5,000 feet on the Angeles Crest Hwy. Astronomical sources said the rate in 2001 was ~3,000 per hour. An individual in a dark clear sky location will see ~60% of that theoretical rate. The rate was supposed to be similar in 2002 but there was a full moon then so we saw less than half as many as in 2001. The 2001 event was on a Saturday night and I've never seen as much traffic on the Angeles Crest. It took from 3:00-4:30AM to drive ~30 miles down the crest and home.

I was camping at Chilao that night in 2001...all the campgrounds were full with rowdy drunks and raging campfires, as it was pretty darn cold... We estimated to have seen about 600 an hour at peak. I agree, after that it's hard to get too pumped up for anything else.

regardless, we still went out in the meadow by my house here in very dark central WA the other night. We saw about 50-60 in an hour, from 11:30- 12:30.. well before the peak that night. The weather was perfect here with super clear skies, temps in the low 60's, and no bugs. That's one nice thing about the Perseid's is the weather for laying out on the ground for a while is usually pretty good.