I've mentioned in another blog that though I grew up seeing meteors, I did not know about meteor showers until the early 1980's. In the twenty odd years since that night in August, I've learned a lot about meteor showers. I have a favorite site that lists them all and gives general to detailed information about their origins, their patterns, the type of meteors to expect, the duration and the peak. It gives information and suggestions for viewing all and individual showers. I observe many showers throughout the year to different degrees.
This year, the normally quiet, less than spectacular Aurigids were hyped to be quite a show. Yet it was a party that only a few people were invited to. In the bulletins on Space.com we were told that the show was for the west coast people as the peak would be after daylight had begun in the central US. I enjoy a challenge. Earlier this week I began timing the advance of daylight and reading everything I could on the Aurigid shower. The moon would be bright, but the meteors were thought to be some of the brightest. On one site, the peak was set forward about an hour. Also, since the band we were crossing was relatively unknown and since people who studied that band felt it would be a quite strong showing, I decided I would find a dark sky and watch what I could.
Since so much, yet so little was being offered, I was not disappointed. Well maybe I was disappointed with our preparation to watch, but not with the shower.
We woke about 2:30AM CDT, made coffee, put together cots, chairs, muffins and bananas. I put the tripod and the camera in the car. There were things we completely overlooked as we set out from the house a little past 3AM: blankets (it's the first of September), jackets (ditto), tent stakes for the screen enclosure. We drove into Oklahoma to Lake Tenkiller State Park and pulled out on a little peninsula with a boat ramp and picnic tables. The ground is fairly level and even though it is a day use area, during holidays, etc., people use it as overflow for the camp ground. There were only two spots taken on the peninsula. We pulled our Suburban off the pavement and drug out our stuff oh so quietly – hmmm, yeah.
The first thing we noticed was that it was cold out on the lake at 4:30AM. The second was that we had no cover or warm clothing. We did have hot coffee, but aside from spilling it on ourselves, it would have no lasting effect. Once every thing was in place, my hubby started making numerous trips to the vehicle in search of anything warm to shield our bodies from the cold wind off the lake. He found a polypro rain jacket, an extra t-shirt he’d brought along for later in the day and a accordion fold window shield. I found some thick blue paper towels in which I wrapped my bare arms. He finally took the sheepskin covers off the seats and brought them out as well. Had it not been quite dark, I’m sure we’d have looked like a bad comedy act.
We hadn’t been on the cots 5 minutes when we began seeing a few dim meteors, with, every now and then, a brighter one. About 6 AM, the clear sky began to color in the east and it was then that we noticed Venus hanging slightly above the horizon, dazzling like a jewel. As the sky grew ever more colorful, Venus fought obscurity, her brilliance growing with the slowly brightening field in which she sat. Even though we did see some beautiful meteors during that time, our attention was constantly pulled back to the large spectacle of the morning. We watched for meteors until the last star was obscured by morning light. I’m sure we missed the bulk of them, but no matter. We had a rewarding sky show.
After packing up our mess, we began the drive around the lake to our property on the other side. We stopped to watch and photograph the sun’s grand entrance into Labor Day Weekend. Tired, yet excited, we worked, really more like piddling, ‘til we both were ready to collapse. A light lunch had us on the road for home. What a refreshing morning.
