A Granby Night Out

You may have heard through Facebook or other channels that the Perseid meteor shower is going on right now, an annual summer event with a higher than usual number of "shooting stars" visible in the night sky. The increased activity is generally great enough that a determined observer can for many nights straight, even in an area awash with city lights, go outside at night for a few minutes and catch a glimpse.

Of course, you can also do much better than that. This past Saturday night marked the absolute peak of this year's Perseids, and my boyfriend and I spent that evening camping up in the mountains, far from the light pollution of Denver, for optimum viewing.

We went to Lake Granby, about two hours outside of town. When we arrived in the mid-afternoon, things didn't look so great for our cause. Ominous clouds covered almost every inch of the sky, and the tiny break on the western horizon seemed too far away. Shortly after we set up our tent for the night, some significant rain started pouring for around half an hour.

But then the storm ended, and the fast-blowing wind started to take the clouds right on out of the area. By the time sunset was approaching, it looked like this:


By the time the night sky became visible, there wasn't a cloud in sight. Things were a bit on the chilly side, what with us being used to all these unprecedented 90+ degree days this summer, but we got the view we were looking for. Countless more stars than you can see in the city. The faint glow of the Milky Way visible across the sky. Several orbiting satellites visible as they raced overhead. And, of course, plenty of meteors.

It's worth noting that a "meteor shower peak" may not be what you're expecting, if you're not too familiar with astronomy. It's not a steady rain of shooting stars pouring down like water from your shower head. The peak means only about one to three meteors visible per minute, on average. But they're visible in a reliable section of the sky, and when you stack that against the way you just normally have to be randomly looking in just the right spot to see maybe one shooting star every year or so, it's pretty impressive.

What was especially neat about this shower peak was that several of the meteors were unnaturally bright. They flared so brightly with light so thick, you could practically see a halo around the quick streak of light. They were so brilliant, I think if I'd seen them portrayed this way in a movie, I would have thought they looked fake. It all made for a wonderful little evening getaway.

There's still another night or two of decent viewing available before the meteor shower quickly fades away until next summer. So even if you can't get away from the city lights, you might find it worth your while to step outside for 20 to 30 minutes to see what you can see. Assuming you don't know the constellation Perseus to pinpoint your search, plan on looking generally east and about halfway up the sky around 10:30 or 11:00, at your local time.

And good luck, stargazers!