Cultural Zero’s 2009 Perseid Recap
Fig.1: Streaky goodness courtesy the Associated Press
This past week Milwaukee was treated to some of the best meteor-watching weather it’s seen in a while, as the 2009 Perseid meteor shower descended on the area with not a cloud to be seen. A lifelong casual astronomy buff (my dad and I owned a pair of telescopes when I was young, but I haven’t kept up with the hobby as much as I’d like, despite buying a new ‘scope a couple years ago), I excitedly prepared for the shower’s peak hours by scheduling myself off work on Thursday and hatching plans to hi-tail it out of the city Wednesday night in search of dark skies (technically the night after the shower’s peak, but since the peak came at 2 PM in the afternoon, it didn’t really matter whether we went on Tuesday night or Wednesday). Wandering into a park on the lakeshore wasn’t going to cut it this year—with a quarter-moon rising at midnight, I wanted to be as far from city lights as possible.
Plans were made with my ladyfriend to travel far to the west on I-94 during the early evening, but were altered once we discovered that some friends wanted to tag along but didn’t get out of work until 11:30. This threw a minor wrench into my scheming, as the plan was to see as many meteors as we could before moonrise, but a compromise was eventually hatched, leading us to two separate areas outside of Milwaukee proper that lent themselves to primo fireball-watching. I share this with you now to give you some ideas for next year, since, y’know, all you city-slickers who tried to see something in your backyard completely missed the boat. (Hey, I know one or two of you may have lucked out and seen an unusually bright fireball at some point in the middle of the city, but when you compare one or two to the 30 or 40 we managed to see in the course of the night, you lose.)
Unfortunately, driving up and down N. Shorecliff Lane failed to reveal any clear entrance to the park. Either it was too dark to see one or I’m just an idiot. So we drove farther north along Lake Shore Drive until we found a nice, secluded court where we didn’t think the locals would come running out of their house with a shotgun to scare the damn meteor-watchers off the road in front of their house. So from about 10 until 11 PM we watched the great square of Pegasus rise in the east as the Perseids sliced from Andromeda to Delphinus. In the span of an hour we saw probably a dozen or so, including a spectacular triple-shot where three meteors zig-zagged below the great square in the span of about one and a half seconds.
We made our way back to town to pick up our friends and then set out for Aztalan State Park, on Highway Q between Milwaukee and Madison, just east of Lake Mills. On our way to the park one of our friends explained that she hadn’t seen the Perseids in about 15 years because she had been thwarted by weather or circumstance every year she remembered to try. Her story was cut short, though, by a squee of delight as a flaming rock raced across the sky while she peeked out the rear window. After an hour drive, we arrived at Aztalan. This place is tailor-made for stargazing. The majority of the park is well-maintained prairie and while some trees obscure the horizon, they also block the few street lights on the nearby corner of Highways B and Q. We pulled up to the park and found the entryway unblocked and inviting—perhaps the park managers knew about the celestial showcase and cordially kept the park open for pilgrims like ourselves? There were a few when we arrived, after all; two other cars were parked and a small group were already taking in the show…as well as playing with Pac-Man applications on their cell phones. Um, ok. The humbling, halting beauty of all God’s cosmos is just above your heads, but don’t let that stop you from getting your 80s nostalgia fix on.
The natural incline of the hill adjacent to the parking lot faced southeast, right in the line of fire in the early AM (fun tip: after midnight is always the recommended time to look for meteors during any shower, as the Earth’s rotation is spinning you directly into the tail of the comet from whence the space debris comes). It was like the park was landscaped specifically for the Perseids! We sat on the dew-covered ground, blankets keeping us dry, from roughly 2 until 3 AM, and let the heavens rain fire down on us. Overly poetic? Maybe, but seeing a fairly bright fireball on an average of once every two minutes had me in a lyrical mood. And the now-sky-high last quarter moon didn’t detract from the observations one bit.
Next year, August 12 lands on a Thursday, so plan on taking either Thursday or Friday off work and do yourself a favor—head out of town. Crash a state park, ask a friend in the country to let you chill out in their yard. You won’t regret it.
Anyone else have some sweet fireballs to report from this year’s shower? Feel free to comment.
