by Jane Smith
| Observer | Jane Smith |
|---|---|
| Location | IHOP1 |
| Date | 8/13/04 |
| Time | 9-11pm |
| Objects | Perseids |
After a leisurely drive to IHOP2, I arrived about 8:45pm, truck running nicely. The parking lot was empty so I hung around until about 9:30pm when Don Eddy and his wife, a couple from Sacramento, pulled in. It looked as if I would be the only TAC-SACer to make it, so we decided to join some others who were at the lower parking lot, IHOP1. All total there were about 12 of us there. Virgil Strand, astro-newbie from Orangevale came over to introduce himself. We had a great chat about telescopes... and then the show began.
The shower started slowly, coming out of the northeastern sky, mostly above Cassiopeia. In the 2 hours I was at IHOP I saw a nice variety of "shooters", about 25 to 30. A few were impressive blue "fireballs" that left long, sweeping trails across the sky. Some were short, wispy ones. And several were of the long, thin-streak variety. The storm lacked the intensity it had several years ago, but was enjoyable just the same.
I left IHOP about 11pm. When I got home I observed from the backyard for a while, but the "storm" had not intensified. I'm curious if it ever really got going. Michel Huster's OR from Redding agrees well with what we saw at IHOP.
It was a warm night... shorts and t-shirt the whole time. I missed my buddies.
Posted on tac-sac Aug 12, 2004 08:57:41 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.2 Jan 06, 2005 22:56:48 PT