2004 Perseid Meteor Shower 8/12 unusually good

Re: 2004 Perseid Meteor Shower 8/12 unusually good


They always say that. Sometimes they're right

Well? Anybody seen anything?

I went out on my deck to look, turned the lights off and waited, but the sky was too overcast to see anything, so I came in. About 2 minutes later I heard a crashing on my deck and turned on the lights quickly enough to see a full grown black bear tearing down my bird feeder and running off with it. That bear was probably rummaging around under my deck when I was out there with the lights off {Shiver}. Meteor watching in the woods of New Hampshire can be dangerous

Oh wow, I'm laughing but that's because I'm safe over here on the other coast. Bears are big and scary. (Hope it wasn't one of your best bird feeders.)

It was clear here last night and I struggled gallantly to stay awake, but I fell asleep at midnight without seeing anything. Will try again tonight. I have to go out into the pasture as the neighbors have an annoying light. We're supposed to be looking NE, right?

Our late news had a shot of it last night. Very active. Was going to go out to see it tonight, but now we have Bonnie sitting on us! Drats!

Bonnie? Is that a storm?

rosbourne- I always say "I aint sceered a no Bears!"


But, I woulda been if I was you! Does that happen often? Maybe turn the lights on, knock some things around and make sure the coast is clear before going out tonight without a light.

Bird feeders have a rough life. My first three were destroyed by squirrels. The first one they ganged onto until the support wire broke and it fell 20' to the ground. The second feeder I re-inforced the support wire, but they ganged onto it and stripped the screws on the support hanger, and the second feeder was destroyed in the fall. The last feeder I re-inforced all supports, and the red squirrels chewed through the aluminum top, so I had to buy a steel bucket to put over the thing. This solved the squirrel problem but the chipmunks still stuffed their faces full of seed and stole it all. Finally the bear just ripped the whole thing down and carried it off in his jaws (leaving little tooth holes in the plastic tube). It's very hard to feed the birds without feeding everything else as well. And LOTS of animals like sunflower seeds apparently.

yep - Tropical. She never made it to hurricane. Charlie is right behind her though which means the next four nights or so will be messed of for star gazing.

This is my first bear encounter, though I'm reading on the web that it's fairly common in New Hampshire.

When you turn on the lights expecting to see a Raccoon, and instead you see a black shape as large as yourself, your mind does flips and tells you the thing you're seeing is as large as an elephant. This all happens in a split second, but it makes the bear look REALLY big and menacing. Meanwhile your body shoots you with enough adrenaline to make you feel like a skinny 17 year old olympic sprinter.

I don't mind the wildlife, and I wouldn't mind a bear in the yard (as long as I see him before he sees me), but I didn't expect to see one on the deck with just a sliding glass door between me and him.

Apparently you have a lot of hungry mammals there, Rosborne. It IS funny how they all seem to like sunflower seeds. Have you tried suet? I have really good luck with my suet feeding critters -- mostly chickadees, nuthatches and little woodpeckers. Suet seems to be less interesting to the rodents, but I admit I'm delighted to see 'my' chipmunks and red squirrels. Seems to me, when one feels safe eating, then they all feel fairly safe.

Just now, there is a Stellar's Jay (like a blue jay but all dark) doing a darned good imitation of an eagle's call. He's trying to scare everyone away before he gets the peanuts on the porch railing.

There are bears here, but we have horse-fencing all around and that seems to keep them in check... that and the two loud Chow dogs who resent intruders on the property.

Sorry to hear that you're in the midst of stormy weather, Squinney. I'll make a better effort to look for the Perseids tonight so I can give a good report.

Oh yes! We went up the Saddle Road on the Big Island at about 10:30. It was clear and we saw about 10 nice ones before the clouds started rolling in... so then we started going up the road to the observatories. We parked on the side and saw about a dozen big ones, maybe a dozen more little ones... my 5 year old pointed out the Milky Way to us, then the clouds came in... So then we went all the way up to the Mauna Kea Visitor's Center. It was cold up there, but crowded with people, telescopes set up all over the place. We got to look at Uranus and Sirius and Andromeda through very nice expensive telescopes in between watching the meteors shoot by our naked eyes... The kids were psyched to get to look too, but were equally psyched to get cocoa at midnight, go inside and play with the interactive computer programs... The meteors were a little less fast a furious after midnight, and it was quite chilly up there...

Too cloudy here.

Lucky you, Princess. So all the action was before midnight?

I don't know how, but I woke up at 3am and wandered downstairs, out the door, through the yard and into the pasture. Laid down on a blanket and looked for a half hour. Nada.

The skies were beautifully clear but Perseid-free. Maybe I had to do this BEFORE midnight? Should I try again tonight?

It looked busiest early in the show. I rather wished we'd gone up to be up there at 10 instead of leaving the house about 10... I'd say about 11 they were coming one every minute for a while, then slowed down to every other minute. By the time we went up to the Visitors Center, it must have been 11:30 and there was a nice one about every 5 minutes; then by the time we left (after 1 AM) they were spotted about every 10~15 minutes, but a nice one was maybe 1:3 by then, so yeah, earlier seemed better here to us... They were fabulous! The night sky is so bright up there, the air so fresh, but only lava rock to sit on or the hood of your car... You're lucky you have a nice soft pasture to watch from...

Okay then, I'll try for an earlier watch. Somehow, I just thought I needed to wait until late. The pasture was reasonably soft but I'd rather be in Hawaii. Are you going again?