Perseids Last Night

by Diana Symons

Well, I've only been at this for less than six months so this may be real old hat for some of you, but we've all got to start somewhere. I was determined to see the Perseids last night despite my natural tendencies: enjoy sleeping at night. I'm such a wimp about staying up late. Midnight will pretty much turn me into a pumpkin so I usually miss all the good stellar stuff. Why or why can't we do this around tea time when civilized people are up?

Anyway, the sky was pretty clear and I've never seen a meteor shower before so I thought I would sacrifice my valuable beauty sleep and see it. However, part of my wimpiness is not wanting to actually go very far so I also sacrificed a lot of dark sky by setting up by the pool with a blanket and my star chart. I didn't plan to stay up much past 1:00 but I thought I would see the beginning of the show anyway. And I did. And it was very cool.

Early on I noticed a huge bright star on the low eastern horizon. At first I thought it had to be a plane it was so bright. When I checked it later and realized it had to be a planet, and if a planet it had to be Jupiter. Hmmm. I've never seen Jupiter through a scope before. I waited to about 1:30 to catch more meteors and let Jupiter rise a little more then I went in and pulled out my little piece of (insert your favorite expletive here) telescope. It's not much, but I got to see Jupiter!

While I was viewing Jupiter in the courtyard of my apartment building, I heard and ominous growling about five feet away from me. I looked up into the eyes of a big dog. His head was down and he was creeping up on me. Before I really started to panic, a man who was walking the dog pulled him away. I hadn't even seen him and he was only a few feet away. He apologized for the dog and said, "He gets scared around...long, black things." I couldn't tell if he was making a joke or really didn't know what a telescope was.

Then I thought, Saturn follows Jupiter in the sky doesn't it? Pulled out the chart. Aries. Where's Aries? I must have held the chart at the wrong angel because I couldn't find anything that looked like a planet. Then I noticed a smallish star low and to the left of Jupiter. That couldn't be it. Shouldn't it be more north? Can't hurt to look anyway. Bingo! Found Saturn. Now I really, really, really need a larger nicer telescope. Saturn is just to cool an object to view through..... Well, propriety forbids that I finish that thought.

I think I'm getting the hang of this. Six months ago I couldn't find a constellation to save my life. I'm still no good at finding Messier objects, but I'll get there. For now, I shall wallow in personal glory at my achievement, Perseids, Jupiter and Saturn in one night. Just me and a start chart. It doesn't get much better.