09/06/2026
Meteor and Milky Way
Last month the peak of Perseids meteor shower coincided with a new moon, and dark skies - perfect timing. Claudia and I spent the evening lounging along a lakeshore in the Yosemite high country, watching meteors and hoping for one in just the right spot. Which we got, eventually, with this meteor slicing right through the heart of the Milky Way.
We weren’t looking toward the radiant for the meteor shower – the place where the meteors seem to emanate from, in this case the Perseus constellation. While you’re likely to see more meteors looking toward the radiant, the streaks will be shorter, since the meteors fall straight down toward you, rather than going across the sky. So we opted to look toward the Milky Way, almost directly opposite the radiant. We knew we’d see fewer meteors, but the ones we would see would have longer streaks.
I got lucky with this meteor, but even if I hadn’t, I enjoyed just hanging out, looking at the stars and meteors. I’ll take that any time.
