Last night Charlie Ford and I did a star party for a family camp held at our local BSA campsite. Sky was partly cloudy but cleared about 11:30. We left about 1:15. It became windy as the clouds cleared but was still rather warm at 7800 feet elevation. We saw perhaps 10 or 15 bright Perseids (first mag or brighter) and a handful of fainter ones. It got me excited to observe tomorrow night/Friday morning during the projected peak hours. The forecast is good for clear skies in Sanpete County and I still plan to go to the Skyline Drive site (elevation about 9800 feet). Anyone is welcome to join me. Charlie Ford may be there, as well. I will bring an 8-inch SCT to use during the evening hours but I’ll put it away after midnight to enjoy the shower. In past years from a Sanpete valley site (elevation about 6200 feet) I’ve observed over 90 Perseids per hour during the predicted peak hours, plus a half-dozen or so sporadics. I’ve made two, one-hour counts from approximately 1:00 to 3:00 AM, both last year and in 2008 (or 2007, I forget which). I consider myself to be a reliable observer yet my meteor counts have always been much greater than the usual numbers that are cited, 50 or 60 per hour for the Perseids. I had the same experience during the Geminid shower years ago at Rush Valley with Bill Kelley. On that occasion I observed about 110 Geminids during each hour of a two-hour count. Next to the Leonid storm of 2001 that Geminid shower was the best meteor shower I’ve observed. Anyway, I would appreciate company this year for the Perseids this Thursday night and (hopefully) for the Geminids in December. I’d like to confirm my results with other experienced observers. I don’t doubt my own experiences but I would like to have someone confirm what I’m seeing. I’m also planning to keep a DSLR camera set up for as much of the night as battery power will allow, and I may also use a 35mm SLR camera. The Skyline Drive site is about a two-hour drive from downtown SLC, maybe a bit less. The Perseid radiant itself may be affected by horizon sky glow from Utah County but by early morning hours it should be well above the horizon. The rest of the sky, of course, is very dark and perfect for meteor observing. Please, someone come join me for what looks to be a great year for observing the Perseids. I’ll bring the hot cocoa. Kim
Kim, Could you post the directions again to Skyline Drive? I know you did once but I'm having trouble finding the directions. Thanks! On Wed, Aug 11, 2010 at 11:32 AM, Kim <kimharch@cut.net> wrote:
Last night Charlie Ford and I did a star party for a family camp held at our local BSA campsite. Sky was partly cloudy but cleared about 11:30. We left about 1:15. It became windy as the clouds cleared but was still rather warm at 7800 feet elevation. We saw perhaps 10 or 15 bright Perseids (first mag or brighter) and a handful of fainter ones. It got me excited to observe tomorrow night/Friday morning during the projected peak hours. The forecast is good for clear skies in Sanpete County and I still plan to go to the Skyline Drive site (elevation about 9800 feet). Anyone is welcome to join me. Charlie Ford may be there, as well. I will bring an 8-inch SCT to use during the evening hours but I’ll put it away after midnight to enjoy the shower.
In past years from a Sanpete valley site (elevation about 6200 feet) I’ve observed over 90 Perseids per hour during the predicted peak hours, plus a half-dozen or so sporadics. I’ve made two, one-hour counts from approximately 1:00 to 3:00 AM, both last year and in 2008 (or 2007, I forget which). I consider myself to be a reliable observer yet my meteor counts have always been much greater than the usual numbers that are cited, 50 or 60 per hour for the Perseids. I had the same experience during the Geminid shower years ago at Rush Valley with Bill Kelley. On that occasion I observed about 110 Geminids during each hour of a two-hour count. Next to the Leonid storm of 2001 that Geminid shower was the best meteor shower I’ve observed. Anyway, I would appreciate company this year for the Perseids this Thursday night and (hopefully) for the Geminids in December. I’d like to confirm my results with other experienced observers. I don’t doubt my own experiences but I would like to have someone confirm what I’m seeing. I’m also planning to keep a DSLR camera set up for as much of the night as battery power will allow, and I may also use a 35mm SLR camera.
The Skyline Drive site is about a two-hour drive from downtown SLC, maybe a bit less. The Perseid radiant itself may be affected by horizon sky glow from Utah County but by early morning hours it should be well above the horizon. The rest of the sky, of course, is very dark and perfect for meteor observing. Please, someone come join me for what looks to be a great year for observing the Perseids. I’ll bring the hot cocoa.
Kim
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Hi Jay. Here are directions I posted earlier (with a couple of corrections): Go to MapQuest and find map of Fairview, Utah (http://www.mapquest.com/maps?traffic=1&city=Fairview&state=UT). MapQuest will give you a little balloon with info on Fairview; turn that off. At toolbar on the top of the map turn off Traffic and select Aerial Map but leave the labels on. (The Aerial Map view is actually an aerial photo and will show terrain, vegetation and roads that don't show up on Google Maps or most paper maps.) Zoom in four clicks, then pan to the right (east) and follow SR31 until you see its intersection with SR264. Then pan down (due south) past two small lakes (called Fairview Lakes, but not labeled). SR31 will be headed southeast, but directly south of Fairview Lakes it makes a sort of shallow u-turn and briefly heads northeast before it then turns southeast again and continues in that direction toward Huntington Reservoir. Center the map on the bottom of that "u-turn" and zoom in two more clicks. The labels will now appear for Skyline Drive. You'll see where the southern part of Skyline Drive takes off, then somewhat east of that you'll see the junction for the northern part. Apparently the aerial photo was taken before the two snowmobiling parking areas were built, so they don't show up. Now pan north on Skyline Drive until you see an unlabeled road take off to the right (east). This is the road to the observing site, which is visible from Skyline Drive, about 1/4 mile off of the main road. If you zoom in all the way, you can even see three vehicles (probably trailers) parked on the "observing field." I misjudged a couple of distances in the directions I posted earlier. The distance between the junctions for the southern part of Skyline Drive and the northern part is probably only 1/2 mile or so. The distance on Skyline Drive from SR31 to the intersection with the dirt road is probably less than a mile. You can find the same site on Google Maps using the "satellite" tab for an aerial image. Google's aerial photo is newer and shows the two parking areas described above. Troy Davidson also sent the following: Latitude/Longitude for the site are: 39.632585,-111.295377 Here is a link to the exact spot on Google Maps: http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&hq=&ll=39.632585,-111.295377&spn=0.003099,0. 005279&t=h&z=18 Here's a link in Mapquest: http://www.mapquest.com/mq/6-rKawvezQ Incidentally, I re-read the August S&T article and noticed that they did mention the possibility of observing 100 Perseids per hour, so maybe I'm vindicated. Kim
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