What I did last weekend

[cjsmith]

I went to a star party, enjoyed a view of Half Dome, helped some kids (and adults) look through a telescope, made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, watched the Perseids, and chased off a bear.

Next time: even MORE warm clothes.
Next time: some electric way to heat water (camp stoves emit visible light) or several Thermoses.

Comments

[platypus]

Yay!

It feels a bit silly bundling up on a summer night, but no matter where you are, it gets cold stargazing at 3am! Especially lying close to the ground.

How was your Perseid rate? People seem to be reporting a little lower than they'd have expected under the conditions. I lost count early on; we certainly saw more than a hundred, maybe even more than 150, but we were out for four hours (though it didn't *feel* like four hours). And quite a lot of them were short or dim. Some of the best, brightest ones were sporadics. I'm happy with any meteors at all, and I've only seen the Milky Way a handful of times in my life, so I was happy enough. I didn't bring my telescope, not wanting to be distracted from general gazing for long, but even through 10x binoculars the Andromeda galaxy and the Perseus double cluster and such were gorgeous.

[rfrench.livejournal.com]

It was pretty sporadic, but there was one minute when I saw seven in a row.

We were enjoying looking at Andromeda and the double cluster with our 18x50 binocs, too. I'd never seen the double cluster before, and had never seen Andromeda other than in a photo.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I was stunned that we could make out Andromeda with just our eyeglasses. Faint, but definitely there. WOW. I think that's a big part of what makes me want to go back. That stuff is REALLY THERE! It's not just the camera making things up!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I get cold very easily, especially when I'm not moving or when I'm really sleepy. I had thermal underwear, a T-shirt, a sweatshirt, and a big down parka; I had a hat, the hood of the sweatshirt, and the hood of the parka; I had mittens; I had three layers on my legs. I was shivering. I think my strategy in future will have to include those little chemical hand-warmer things.