too little too late too sad

My dear readers,

I did get up at 3:30 am, turned out Joleen, world's cutest English pointer pup, convinced her to camp in the kennel for a few hours and went back in the house to get the trusty Toby for company and possible protection ... from who know what and headed out for Perseids viewing. My first clue, should have been this: at no time have I had to use a flashlight, the moon is straight up above and shining like a huge beacon lighting the landscape so it seemed more like dawn. Oh, well, I put the lawn chair in the back of the little red truck, loaded Toby and me and drove up to the meadow, parked and peeked out... no meteors and where, the heck is the big dipper... the landmark to look for according to my internet source. I thought I could sit in the truck with the door open, but no, because the truck interior light shown as bright as the moon. So I pulled on the hat (again, internet advice) and climbed from the truck seat to the back of the truck... without touching the ground I'm pleased to say. I watched and waited... and waited and watched, but no 100 meteors an hour in my part of the sky. So I gave up and headed home, paused to peek out the window at the top of the hill and WOW I saw a good one. So I parked, moved myself to the back of the truck to my lawn chair and waited. I saw 2 small ones or possibly they were fire flies. So my report on meteor watching at our place in Woodson County, Kansas is that really, seeing 6-10 meteors in an hour between the hours of 10 ish and midnight works for me... wishing to see many at 4 am was disappointing and I'm sleepy. So next year when they come I'll try again... and I've got a year to work out a better plan... Mimi says that we quite often as children, joined her on a blanket in the yard and star gazed, maybe once or twice a month when it was warm... I wish I remembered that. She says that it's the climbing in the back of the truck that is troublesome with my plan, so next year, it's me and my mom in the miata. Now that's a plan. :)

Chasing the Perseids

Dear Readers,

I'm entranced with the Perseids. Poppi and I took his truck up to the meadow and facing northish, stretched out in the back of the truck and watched the sky for drifts of astral dust to fly by. (I'm listening to a book about Alaskans, thus the descriptive language.) I saw about 7, one really impressive one and Poppi doesn't admit to seeing any though we both saw several planes zoom by in the night sky. It was a perfect night in Kansas, warm, no wind and the sky as clear as could be. So that was August 11, pre Amanda's birthday. Then on the actual night of Amanda's birthday, Bud and I duplicated the previous evening, although this time Bud saw maybe 8-9 while I saw fewer. I think we were looking too early in the night, but we couldn't stay awake. I'm going to get up at 4 in the morning, that being 2 days after Amanda's birthday and try my luck. I figure at least Toby will go with me. Wish me luck. Love to all, p/ap

Here's a bit about the Perseids:
The Perseids is the name of a meteor shower associated with the comet Swift-Tuttle. The Perseids are so-called because the point they appear to come from, called the radiant, lies in the constellation Perseus. The stream of debris is called the Perseid cloud and stretches along the orbit of the comet Swift-Tuttle. The cloud consists of particles ejected by the comet as it travels on its 130-year orbit. Most of the dust in the cloud today is around a thousand years old.

The Perseid meteor shower has been observed for about 2000 years, with the earliest information on this meteor shower coming from the Far East.

The shower is visible from mid-July each year, with the peak in activity being between August 9 and 14, depending on the particular location of the stream. During the peak, the rate of meteors reaches 60 or more per hour. They can be seen all across the sky, but because of the path of Swift-Tuttle's orbit, Perseids are primarily visible in the northern hemisphere. As with all meteor showers, the rate is greatest in the pre-dawn hours, since the side of the Earth nearest to turning into the sun scoops up more meteors as the Earth moves through space. In 2009 the peak zenithal hourly rate will be about 120, but fainter meteors will be washed out by a waning gibbous moon.