I missed the Eta Aquarid meteor shower that happened May 5-6. It takes preparation to stay up all night to see a meteor shower and I wasn’t prepared.
You have to find a dark place that’s not bothered with streetlight or house lights. It has to be someplace safe, and you have to have something comfortable to sit on if you’re going to watch from midnight to sunrise.
I saw my first meteor shower in November in the 1990s. It was the Leonid meteor shower, and I went with my friend Joanne, her young son and my dog Eclipsé, who I found in Mexico at another astronomical event, a solar eclipse.
We planned ahead on where to watch the shower, in Joshua Tree. We drove for a while into the park and pulled off the road. Joanne’s son was sound asleep, so we let him stay in the car while we camped next to it on a big blanket with Eclipsé between us. We saw quite a few meteors fall across the sky. It was thrilling and neither of us had trouble staying awake. The only problem was that cars occasionally drove by, and it took a while for our eyes to acclimate to the darkness again.
In 1833, the Leonid meteor shower was amazing. This year’s Eta Aquarid meteor shower was predicted that around 50 meteors per hour would fall. The 1833 Leonid meteor shower was one of the most spectacular meteor showers, with 50,000 to 150,000 meteors visible per hour at its peak. Yes, per hour! It caused consternation and fear back then. I’m sure if it happened this year, people would probably think we were being attacked. That long-ago event spurred serious study of meteor showers.
This year’s Leonid meteor shower is predicted to take place November 17 and I’m definitely going to plan for it. It’s already on my calendar. I need to plan for a dark sky area. Since Lake County is designated as a Dark Sky destination, it shouldn’t be too difficult.
I’ve joined the Facebook site, Dark Skies – Lake County, CA and am hoping to get some advice on where to watch meteor showers. No response from my query yet but I just joined so I’m not worried.
As a kid, I never really looked up to the skies. I lived out in the country in Michigan so there wasn’t any light pollution at the time. I mostly looked at the ground, looking for snakes and little deer mice, or looking at the tops of trees that I wanted to climb. Not a very observant kid. My neighbor however can remember the pattern of our dock in our half-acre pond. Me, I didn’t even know there was a pattern, I just looked out from the dock to where I wanted to dive.
I started looking skyward when I went to La Paz, Baja California, Mexico in 1991 to see the solar eclipse, which lasted 6 minutes and 53.08 seconds.
In Lake County I saw another solar eclipse outside of the Taylor Observatory in Kelseyville.
I’m not an expert on eclipses or meteor showers. One couple who were at the La Paz solar eclipse told me they’d seen so many they couldn’t keep track. In fact, they took an airplane flight over the Atlantic Ocean just to see an eclipse mid-flight. Now, they are who I’d call experts!
What’s a girl to do?…find another meteor shower geek to watch the upcoming November 17 Leonid meteor shower with me. I might, however also watch the Geminid meteor shower that happens in December, which is to be the biggest and most spectacular meteor shower of the year! With 120 per hour at its peak, Dec. 13-14. See meteor shower calendar,
https://www.amsmeteors.org/meteor-showers/meteor-shower-calendar/ Lucy Llewellyn Byard welcomes comments and shares via lucywgtd@gmail.com
