The Perseid meteor shower is best observed from a dark location.... The darker the better. Less light mean more dim meteors will be visible. This year I had a few fun things already planned for the weekend so I was not able to head too far out of the light pollution of Los Angeles to observe them, but I did make time to head to a more local observing spot in the Malibu Hills that I have tried a few times. It takes about an hour from my apartment, it’s somewhat away from the worst of the sky-glow, it’s sort of shielded by the hills, and it has a bit of elevation. In general, it’s not a bad place to do some observing! On a good night, the milky-way is weakly visible, and if you are really lucky there will be a low marine layer, above the LA basin, but below the observing location you pick which will block some or most of the local light pollution.
The Perseids were still a day or so away from peak activity, but as the peak falls between Monday and Tuesday this year, Saturday night was the best chance my girlfriend and I had. We grabbed a blanket for the hood of the car, binoculars, some warm clothes and headed out. When we arrived around 11:30 the sky seemed promisingly dark, but most of the southern half, and the zenith were covered with clouds. There was a nice opening to the north east towards the radiant of the shower, so I angled the car that way, setup the blanket on the hood and we started watching.
Not more than five minutes after we settled in there was a bright meteor which zipped from Cassiopeia past the rapidly fading clouds covering Cygnis. It was brilliant and left a visible trail for a second or so. A minute or so later we spotted a dimmer smaller line heading more southerly, then another quickly followed. Seeing three meteors in short order really reinforced the perception of them radiating from a single point. The sky continued to clear and within 30 minutes the clouds were all but gone from the sky, revealing a very, very dim Milky Way.
As we continued to count meteors and enjoy the warm weather, I scanned around Cygnis a bit with the binoculars and spent a minute or two enjoying one of my favorite constellation, Delphinus. I could just squeeze the main body into the field of my binoculars and admire the bright members against a background of dimmer stars. My binoculars are in pretty bad shape, and I did not want to miss many of the meteors so I limited my exploration to quick glimpses, but it was nice to break up the all sky watching with a bit of magnified viewing.
Around 12:30 we decided to call it a night as we had an hour drive back home and had already had a long day. In the roughly 50 minutes we were observing we saw almost two dozen meteors, and three really wonderful ones which left a lasting trail. I am guessing we missed several as we poured hot chocolate, and more that were obscured by clouds. Even if our count was all inclusive, that is still a good rate, almost a meteor every two minutes.
I was initially disappointed that my plans did not allow me a great deal of time to travel to a darker sight, or to observe longer. In all honesty, I almost did not gather the energy and will to go out and watch the shower. As I was heading home I was very glad I did and I was reminded again that even a short time, under less than ideal conditions, is better than not observing at all. Sure, I wish that I could stroll out to my backyard and have an open, dark sky waiting for me, but I don’t and this year I’m going to try to make the most of the opportunities I do have.
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