perseids

Friday night I took the family camping to Henry Coe State Park to watch the Perseid meteor shower.  Three other families joined us, so there were 19 people in all.  It was nice for the kids to have friends to play with through the night.  We had a group campsite at Manzanita Point.  We met for pizza in Morgan Hill before driving up as a group, arriving at 6pm.  Harry was running late, but fortunately he was able to get the message to us to start out before him.  The adults and older kids hiked the 2 miles to the site, while I and another father drove the equipment and the smaller kids.

Setting up took another hour and the mosquitos were aggressive; we were close to a pond which was the only moisture in the whole area.  The vault toilet smelled pretty bad and the kids resisted going in it.  Otherwise, it was a decent site.  All the horizons were blocked by trees but we had clear views overhead.  Since the moon was to set around 1:30am we all decided to go to bed and sleep until then.  This was a wise decision, since the kids and likely the adults would not have stayed awake so long and missed the shower altogether.

At 1am I woke and came out; the moon was low and it was possible to see a grainy Milky Way.  Marine layer was over San Jose so it was pretty dark; but there was still wildfire smoke in the sky, scattering the light a little.  More people started waking up and even all the kids got up -- which surprised me.  We all found chairs or blankets to lie on and look up.  There were a few faint meteors, and even some bright fireballs leaving smoke trails behind.  I'd say there was one every one minute or so.  But I didn't keep a close count, I was just enjoying the view and making sure the kids were ok.  It was nice to hear the others, who don't do astronomy, oohing and ahhing at the meteors.  As I lay with Clara and Carol on a blanket, Clara asked why the Milky Way was "broken."  She was looking at the rift in Cygnus, which was overhead.  What a great observation!  I told her about dust blocking the stars beyond it.

Everyone went back into their tents after an hour or so.  I stayed out in the lounge chair and wrapped myself up, intending to stay awake as long as I could.  I had my 7x35 binoculars and had nice views of the Double Cluster, M31, and M33 -- which was just barely naked eye -- and finally the Pleiades, which was the best view I recall having.  It's nice to see large open clusters in context with the surrounding sky.  After another hour it seemed the pace of the meteors was dropping off, and I was nodding off too, so back into the tent I went.

In the morning we packed up and I stopped near Frog Pond for a while so the kids could chase a flock of turkeys -- Carol had seen them from the tent when she woke up.  It made me happy to watch them playing, throwing rocks in the pond and having a fun time outdoors in the woods, like I remember from my own childhood.