I have so many ideas of how to make this a cool, graphical multimedia and interesting blog post, but I just don’t have time. So here’s a recap.
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On Monday we drove out to in the middle of nowhere (1.5hrs drive) to some relative’s land in Bastrop so we could see the Perseid meteor shower (tips on viewing) without all the light pollution, noise, etc. We packed a nice picnic, 2 dogs, 3 kids, 3 flashlights, tons of drinks and left the house around 7:15pm. We got on the land just after dark.
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Two of the kids were too freaked out by tall trees, tall grass, and honest-to-goodness-actual darkness, so we couldn’t stay. Wife and I got about a 2 minute glimpse of the sky from out there and we could see millions of stars vs just the couple hundred you can see from the city. Dangnabbit! But what are you going to do? Force them to face their fears right that minute? Nah. So we went home.
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Setting a family policy that kids can no longer watch Blair Witch Project, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, or Friday the 13th movies.
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Got back home around 10:30pm so we went out on the trampoline and stare up for a while to see what we could see (that’s what the bear did). Ended up seeing nada - lots of cloud cover and we just got tired looking. And we were tired-looking.
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Last night (Tuesday), we watched Nim’s Island (awesome movie!) and then went back out on the trampoline. We saw several satellites, MARS (pretty sure we saw it), and some airplanes. And then I saw a HUGE shooting star over to the side and tried to tell the wife - “HEY LOOK!” but it was gone.
Take a look at this video if you want to see more about it - it has some really cool photos, great info, and tips on watching. I think you can still see the shower tonight if you try.
