(meteorobs) Saddleback Mountain Perseids

Richard Kramer kramer at sria.com
Tue Aug 14 13:49:02 EDT 2007


The Goal

Observe the Persied peak from the summit of Saddleback Mountain, Maine, USA.

This summit provides an unobstructed, 360 degree view of some of the 
darkest skies in the northeastern United States.

The Adventure

The hike up to the summit was via a challenging, but rewarding trail, 
traversing some 5.6 miles (8.9 km) with a vertical gain of about 3000 
feet (1000 meters) from the trailhead. My two older daughters (out of 
4 daughters total) lured by the promise of spectacular, unobstructed, 
transparent skies decided to come along. Since the summit is very 
exposed and subject to low nighttime temperatures and high winds, we 
packed winter gear sufficient for comfort down to 30 degrees F (0 deg 
C). This, along with the need to carry enough water to the top of 
this dry, sparse peak, meant that backpacks weighed in at 60 pounds 
(27 kg) (mine) and 27 pounds (13.5 kg) (each daughter). This seemed 
only fair since, after all, I am more than twice as old as each of 
the daughters. Of course, we were also thoroughly supplied with star 
charts, limiting magnitude tables, a list of satellite passes, and a 
notebook for recording.

We hiked in Saturday afternoon and spent the night in a lean-to 
shelter near a spectacular cantilevered glacial erratic boulder 
called Piazza Rock. Skies that night were a little disappointing with 
LM only around 5.5. In any case, since there were only small openings 
in the tree canopy, we could only observe casually on Saturday night 
and dream of the big show ahead the next night from the mountain top.

The Results

As the saying goes: man schemes and God laughs (it rhymes nicely in 
the original Yiddish).

A cold front swept through the area from the northwest, clouding out 
all but a few brief observing windows.  :(

On Sunday, we climbed to the summit. The somewhat strenuous climb was 
great fun and included a lunch stop beside a high mountain pond. The 
final traverse to the summit, about a mile along an exposed ridge 
running from west to east, was interesting, if not exactly fun. We 
were pushing along through high cross winds and scattered showers 
which were falling from the passing cells of cumulus 
clouds.  Fortunately, there didn't seem to be much electricity at 
play in the clouds, but we did not have a comfortable feeling, 
exposed on that ridge.

Given the threatening conditions, we decided to make a base camp in 
the scrubby growth a hundred meters below the summit. Unfortunately, 
this was on the windward, north side of the mountain since the 
leeward side was too steep for a camp. It was also the side from 
which the front was advancing. We settled in at base camp and watched 
the sun set behind a threatening line of clouds as a layer of cirrus 
clouds advancing ahead of the front covered the skies overhead. Not 
good. There were some extended openings in the cirrus layer which 
appeared to be moving in our direction, so we still had some hope of 
seeing a few Perseids.

In the late twilight, around 9:30 local time, gazing towards the 
north, as we were contemplating the grim prospects of a rainy night 
exposed below the summit, as we watched a line of lightning filled 
storm cells drift NW to SE about 100 miles to our north. These cells 
were not heading directly at us, but their line seemed to be drifting 
slowly in our direction. Suddenly, we saw a monster earthgrazing 
Perseid fireball streaking behind the layer cirrus clouds which 
overlaid the storm cells, lighting it up. Our first thought was that 
it was a burst of lightning. Then, we realized it was a fireball 
streaking behind the distant cirrus layer along a track about 100 
degrees long, parallel to, and about 15 degrees above the northern 
horizon. "Well," we thought, "if that is the only Perseid we see 
tonight, at least it was a spectacular one."

Shortly after that fireball, the storm front seemed to stall and our 
skies cleared in every direction but the distant north. We quickly 
put on our layers of clothing, grabbed our observing paraphernalia 
and a thermos which we had filled with hot chocolate, and hastened to 
the summit. Being, as we are, sky-starved because of our murky, light 
polluted, home skies, it was a joy to once again see the milky way 
arching through the summer sky. Unfortunately, with LM of barely 5.5, 
these weren't the spectacular, transparent skies we were hoping for. 
We settled in the lee of a rock and proceeded to enjoy the show. Even 
though the skies were not as clear as we might have preferred, the 
large proportion of bright meteors, the swarms of satellites, the 
milky way, and the full spread of the constellations across the 
unobstructed celestial dome helped make the whole adventure worthwhile.

Naturally, we were keeping a close watch on the progress of the storm 
front. Shortly after midnight, the front accelerated its advance in 
our direction and be beat a hasty retreat to the relative refuge of 
our base camp. Not long after we settled in below the summit, we 
watched a cloud full of lightning hovering over it.

We awoke the next morning in the middle of thick clouds with 
visibility of 10 to 15 feet (3 to 5 meters), winds steady at 40 miles 
per hour (60 km/hr), and episodes of heavy, sideways rain. 
Fortunately, conditions improved as we breakfasted and broke camp, 
and we able to spend some time picking (and eating, of course) 
handfuls of mountain blueberries and cranberries during our return 
traverse along the ridge line.

The few observations we were able to record may be found, below.

Richard


// Header section
date    	 2007-08-13
interval	 0230-0410
observer	 "Richard" "Kramer"
location	 70 30 00 W, 44 56 00 N
site    	 "top of Saddleback Mountain" "USA"

// Shower section
shower	PER 046 +57
shower	SPO

// Number section
// 	Interval  	RA  	Dec 	Teff 	F    	Lm  	   PER 	   SPO
period	0230-0240 	307 	+40 	0.160 	1.18 	5.50	 C   4 	 C   2
period	0330-0350 	307 	+40 	0.320 	1.00 	5.50	 C  14 	 C   3
period	0400-0410 	307 	+40 	0.160 	1.00 	5.10	 C   1 	 C   4

// Magnitude section
//          	Show 
Interval    -3    -2    -1    +0    +1    +2    +3    +4    Tot
distribution 
PER 	0230-0240   0.0   2.0   0.0   2.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   4.0
distribution 
PER 	0330-0350   1.0   3.0   3.0   1.0   1.0   4.0   1.0   0.0  14.0
distribution 
PER 	0400-0410   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   1.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   1.0
distribution 
SPO 	0230-0240   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   1.0   1.0   0.0   2.0
distribution 
SPO 	0330-0350   0.0   1.0   0.0   0.0   1.0   0.0   0.0   1.0   3.0
distribution 
SPO 	0400-0410   0.0   0.0   1.0   0.0   2.0   1.0   0.0   0.0   4.0

// Personal comments
1. Winds NW 35 miles per hour gusting to 55 miles per hour
2. Temperature 48 degrees Fahrenheit
3. Observing through breaks in the cloud front
4. Driven off the mountain summit by thunderstorms
5. All Perseids of mag 0 or better were green in color
6. All bright Perseids showed trains: mag 0, .5sec through mag -3, 1.5 secs
7. Weather the next morning just below the peak: visibility 3 meters, 
winds NW 45 miles per hour, sideways rain
8. Can't wait to try it again



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