For sky lights, put big city behind you
Tom Stienstra, Chronicle Outdoors Writer
Thursday, July 23, 2009
The night time is the right time - right now - for a spectacular sky party.
All the key factors are synchronizing for a big show, where up to 100 shooting stars per hour are visible on many nights. Peak nights can be even better.
Over the next few weeks, three meteors showers will converge, with the best shows expected July 28-30 and Aug. 12-13. The timing is good because with few forest fires so far this year, skies are clear over most of Northern California, pristine in the high country. In addition, the viewing conditions look to be excellent in the next 10 days, with a new moon (dark) having arrived Tuesday; the next full moon won't arrive until Aug. 5.
Catching a meteor show on a big night can make your summer. There are several good lookouts in the Bay Area and the best are at campgrounds near mountain tops or ridgelines. Outside the Bay Area, high-country wilderness can provide shows that are absolutely scintillating.
To best see the night sky, you have to avoid fog, of course, and get away from city lights. In some areas, particularly in south Santa Clara County and the San Joaquin valleys, a haze layer can reduce visibility and obfuscates stars, planets and satellites.
On wilderness treks, we always designate a night at camp to stargaze. To keep our night vision sharp, we use headlamps with green beams and don't have a campfire. Test with pilots show that one direct flash of a bright white light can virtually blind your night vision for several minutes and hinder it for more than a half hour.
It starts when we each identify every star, constellation and planet we know. The collective knowledge of a group can help explain most of what's up there. In the process, you probably will see a few orbiting satellites, which adds to the adventure. One dramatic shooter changes the game dramatically.
This is what's coming:
Capricornids:The Capricornids meteor shower produces occasional slow-arcing yellow fireballs that are my favorites. It is not a big shower, just 5 to 30 per hour at most. The peak nights are July 28-29, and the shower runs hot and cold through Aug. 12.
Delta Aquarids:The most dramatic shooting stars are the slow sweepers with long trails. That is the highlight of the Delta Aquarids, some bright, some yellow, about 20 per hour. It runs through Aug. 20 with a peak nights July 29-30.
Perseids:The Perseids can be amazing some years, with so many shooters that it can make front page news. What's more likely are 50 to 100 per hour on peak nights, always one of the best meteor showers of the year. The Perseids is unique, in that you get very fast shooters that are white or yellow, or slow ones that are orange or red. The Perseids peak Aug. 12-13 and will produces shooting stars from tonight through Aug. 20.
Bay Area lookouts
Marin:West Point Inn, known for its rustic cabinsand rooms, is located on the south face of Mount Tamalpais at 1,785 feet, towering above the fog. Staying here solves the problem of rangers gating the access road (at Pantoll) to the summit at sunset. Reservations required. (415) 646-0702, westpointinn.com.
San Mateo County:On a fogless night, go to the bluffs above the ocean at McNee Ranch State Park in Montara. At the park entrance (a pipe gate on a ranch road), look for the trailhead on the left. (650) 726-8819, parks.ca.gov.
Santa Clara County: Skyline/Highway 35 on the Peninsula provides several lookouts, including a CalTrans Vista Point (pretty view of the South Bay). But the best spot for stargazing is farther south, at 2,572-foot Borel Hill at Russian Ridge Open Space Preserve, near the intersection with Page Mill Road above Palo Alto. (650) 691-1200; openspace.org.
Contra Costa County:The road to the summit is gated at dusk, but Mount Diablo State Park has three campgrounds (Juniper and Live Oak have showers), prime real estate for night-sky viewing. Info: (925) 837-0904, parks.ca.gov.