by Jerry Elmer
I arrived at Henry Coe at 8:45pm and there were about a dozen cars there. I did not bring my telescope, as I was mostly interested in meteor watching. Last year, as I was the only one there, it was easy to count the meteors I saw in half hour periods. This year, I didn't keep track with my watch, but in comparison to last year and all previous years I have watched, there were far fewer meteors. This year, in the first hour and a half, I only saw 7, as compared to about 30 last year in the same time period, and last year was a nearly full moon, too.
Most everyone left as soon as the moon came up, except for three non-astronomers that had arrived about midnight. Because of the sparse meteor activity and the fact that they were cold, they left at 2:45. I stayed another hour. For the whole night, I saw about 50 to 60 meteors total, as compared to around 300 last year, for the same time span. I saw only three realy bright ones, including one which lit up the parking lot, left a long smoke trail, and exploded with a large flash. Of the ones I saw, there was one that was decidely red, several orange or yellow, one green and one dark blue. All the rest were too dim to discern any color.
The weather was clear the whole night, and fairly warm, although I did need a jacket later on. There was an obnoxious wind that blew without ceasing all night, and was stronger at the far end of the parking lot than up nearer the gate (part of the reason the three non-astronomers got cold and left). Even so, I had a great time, and it was still worth staying up all night to see.
Does anyone from SJAA have a report from Yosemite?