The Perseid Meteor Shower 2013, A Pre Peak Count In Star Valley Wyoming

 

I always love how the media hypes the meteor showers. They tell of the highest predicted counts and never mention the peak times, just several dates. This year’s meteor Perseids peak is expected at about 3 pm Eastern time, which is daytime…. So that doesn’t mean that you might not see any Perseids, it’s just that you can’t see the expected peak.

So I went out this morning and did a pre peak meteor count. The skies here in Star Valley are every bit as bright as you would expect and the Milky Way is just like photographs. One way to measure true sky darkness is to look at the stars in the Little Dipper, (Ursa Minor). If you can see all the stars you have exceptional visibility, and here we have exceptional visibility.

So I went out and set up the lawn chair and did a fifteen minute count. Right away a bright Perseid streaked across the sky and a little later another. I was kind of excited but then the lull occurred and I didn’t see any more for a while. I ended up with a count of seven meteors in fifteen minutes, which translates to 28 an hour. Not terribly impressive as the normal nightly count is 15-25.

So hopefully tomorrow night will be better as I plan on doing more counting. Otherwise things here are pretty normal. We had another show that was scheduled the same time as a local golf tournament and it was one of the slowest shows we have ever done. While we got a lot of compliments, which are always nice and even a few sales, the show dragged and was lightly attended.

Still we have had a good summer and we are busy making more cabochons and even new necklaces and bracelets. Renita learned Komehemo braiding and is making necklaces that match the color of the stones. They look really great and it is always nice to have a sturdy and beautiful necklace to hang ones pendant from.

We have had several strong storms pass through and one afternoon we spent helping pour neighbors hold down their gazebo. Wind gusts came through at about sixty miles per hour and trees were even uprooted. I don’t think we are going to add a gazebo for our space until we have a better plan.

So today we are going down to Flaming Gorge and hopefully find some salmon for our freezer. It will be nice to be on the road and camping in one of our favorite campgrounds. Who knows, we may even pick up a few rocks? Clear skies