One of the things I planned to do after my July 26, 2012 retirement was to stay up as late as necessary to watch the Perseid meteor shower, which peaks during the second week of August. So far, there has been an obstacle to doing that every year–usually clouds, rain, or too much moonlight to see all but the brightest meteors. Last year, Ted and I agreed we should drive to rural Kansas to watch the Perseids in the dark. This year’s Perseids were predicted to be amazing, with up to 70-100 meteors visible per hour, clear skies, and only a new moon which set early in the evening, leaving a dark sky. When we found out the peak viewing time was over the weekend, we asked Kathy if she’d like to have us visit her in Kirksville (no nearby major cities) for the event. She’s an avid star-gazer, so she told us to come on up.
We arrived in Kirksville in the late afternoon and spent some time with Kathy and Annette at the house before dinner.
There’s a new look in the dining room. It was very welcoming with the afternoon sun shining through the window. Ignore any out-of-place objects. Kathy and Annette are updating their bathroom now and needed to shift some things around.
The girls store their winter stove wood in the back yard. Does that make this a wooded lot? The big trees provide a shady setting for outdoor meals at the picnic table.
An interesting mushroom is growing on one of the firewood logs.
There was no rush to eat dinner or to leave the not-busy restaurant (it was Sunday night), because we couldn’t see meteors until after dark. We had a good time visiting together and catching up with each other until we decided it was dark enough to begin searching for a viewing point in the dark country north of Kirksville. It took us about 30 minutes to leave the Kirksville lights behind and another 15 minutes to find a place off the road, without lights, where we wouldn’t bother anyone or get arrested. It was about 10:30 p.m. when we settled on the parking lot of some sort of large equipment storage area.
To get to our viewing spot, we took the Prius Kathy bought from Ted. This gave Ted his first-ever opportunity to ride in the back seat of his former car.
We brought lawn chairs, but lying on the ground was more comfortable for looking upward. You can see my vacant spot.
We were surrounded by large storage sheds, 18-wheelers, a caterpillar, a dump truck, and who knows what else. It was too dark to identify everything around us, but we had a great view of the sky.
Unfortunately, the Perseid show didn’t match its hype. After two hours, we had seen 19 meteors. Only 19!!! It was still a very enjoyable evening. The outdoor temperature was in the low 80s, and it was so dark and clear that we could see the Milky Way. We spent our viewing time identifying constellations, chatting about all kinds of things, and wondering how much longer it would be before we saw another meteor. We saw quite a few spectacular meteors with very long tails and we had a good time together, so the evening was a success.