Falling Stars

Me and my guy went north to Lone Pine http://www.395.com/index.shtml?/lonepine/ this weekend. We wanted to get away from the city lights so we could get up in the wee hours of the morning and see the astonishing event called the Perseid Meteor Showers http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2005/22jul_perseids2005.htm. It was really great! We usually go into the mojave desert for this event, but that is just becoming such a populated area that there is too much light polution to get a good handle on the magnitude of our universe. So we thought we would cross the desert this year and go to the highest place in the continental United States, Mount Whitney. We didn't go to the top of the mountain because that would take 3 days, minimum (well that's what it took my husband to climb it 35 years ago) and you can't drive to the top. But we did manage to drive quite a ways up the eastern face, parked and got out the lounging lawn chairs and prepared to be amazed. If you can get a good view it is kind of like watching fireworks in slow motion. They were exploding out of an area near Mars and they would come into the upper atmosphere and fan out in every direction. Truly spectacular. I am glad the weather cooperated because there were thunderstorms all around where we live. So we escaped the bad weather and had a spectacular show compliments of mother nature.