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profdant139's avatar
profdant139
Explorer II
Aug 27, 2015

Trip report: boondocking (good) & meteor show (not great)

We spent several pleasant days of boondocking and hiking in the Eastern Sierra, hoping to see the Perseid meteor shower. As it turned out, the meteors were a bit of a bust, due to smoke from forest fires in the Western Sierra. But DW managed to capture a great recording of some howling coyotes – the video clip is in this blog post:

Meteor trip

We were hoping to take some pictures of the meteors, but my camera died suddenly and spectacularly the day before the meteor shower. So this is the only picture that I took that captured a meteor, and it was by accident – the meteor is the little yellow streak at the left of center, just above the horizon:



I have now replaced my camera, so I am hoping that there will be another year, and another meteor shower.
Boondocking
Dry Camping
Public Lands
  • JiminDenver's avatar
    JiminDenver
    Explorer II
    Aug 28, 2015
    beautiful shot. I thought the shower was last week and thought I was just getting lucky seeing more than usual shooting stars. Most of the time the smoke really hazed things out so I wouldn't have set up the gear unless I thought I could get a milky way shot. :)
  • Merrykalia's avatar
    Merrykalia
    Explorer
    Aug 28, 2015
    We camphost in Virginia, about 25 miles from home, during August each year. We are about 30-40 miles from the nearest small city, so we have little to no light pollution. The shower this year was better than last year, but not nearly as good as two years ago.

    I sat outside most of the night for 4 nights, coming in when I got cool, but then smartened up and put on a jacket and took a throw to put over my legs. I would doze, then wake up and see some meteors, then sleep a little more. I would come in about 3 or 4 am and sleep for a few hours.

    In 2016, the evening of August 12 into the morning of August 13 will be the peak viewing time after the moon sets around midnight.
  • BoonHauler's avatar
    BoonHauler
    Explorer
    Aug 28, 2015
    LenSatic wrote:
    The one time that they were right was the '91 total eclipse down in southern Baja:

    LS


    I missed that one but I have no intention of missing the 2017 Solar Eclipse......

    Total Solar Eclipse 2017
  • profdant139's avatar
    profdant139
    Explorer II
    Aug 28, 2015
    Len, this shower would not have been such a bust, except for the smoke. Even with hazy skies, we still were able to see about 20 decent meteors per hour. So the predictions were reasonably on target. But I could not find anywhere in the Western US without either smoke or monsoonal clouds.
  • LenSatic's avatar
    LenSatic
    Explorer
    Aug 27, 2015
    I learned long ago that 99% of the time when the press uses superlatives for upcoming astronomical events they are a bust. I didn't even bother to go out to check the Perseids. The one time that they were right was the '91 total eclipse down in southern Baja: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XhpToLX6KQ

    LS
  • Tiger4x4RV's avatar
    Tiger4x4RV
    Nomad
    Aug 27, 2015
    Proof that even "not perfect" trips can still be wonderful. Thanks for sharing.

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