Tucson The First Winter Visitor Has Arrived
August 14, 2007
Post Tags: Tucson-first-winter-visitor , Tucson-Meteor-Dribble , tucson-Perseid-Meteor-Shower , Tucson-snowbirds
Every year as the Monsoon season draws to a close the first winter visitor peaks over the Catalina Mountains in the East. He only makes his appearance known to the early risers. He disappears about twenty minutes after making an appearance then disappears for the rest of the day.
Tucson’s First Winter Visitor each year is Orion, The Mighty Hunter.
I think Orion is hunting a place to get out of the heat and humidity during these early winter visitor days. He is now just waiting for the rest of the winter visitors to join him.
I wasn’t actually expecting to run into him, or take his picture during those few fleeting moments in the morning before he is hidden by the light of the sun. No, that wasn’t the plan at all. I was out at 3 am to 5 am Sunday Aug. 11 to try and get a picture of the “Great and Awesome Perseid Meteor Shower.” It turns out it was less than stellar in many parts of the country and world. I’m referring to it as the “Not So Great Meteor Dribble of 2007”
About 6 years ago I witnessed this meteor shower from my backyard in Continental Ranch at the time. I would count the seconds between sightings. For over an hour I almost never made it past 15, and many times I was stopped at 6 or 7. It was an incredible sight. One I’ll remember for the rest of my life.
I wanted to share this event with world traveler, (nickname for she who went to Europe this summer) but didn’t want to wake her until it really got going. School night and all. I was to call back home if the girls needed to get up. No call was ever placed.
It was about 4:45 when I turned the camera from the NE to the E to catch the image of Orion so at least the whole night wasn’t a waste.
The following night, last night, I was out again from 12:30 to 3 AM thinking I might have been too late the night before. I saw a lot of clouds, a big thunderstorm over Casa Grande and Arizona City and for a few minutes the inside of my eyelids. : ) Again, no need to call the girls. I saw a total of 6 small traces across the sky last night.
The next “shower” is due in December. I should be rested by then.
Here is one of the images I took the first night looking North Northeast. Cassiopeia is conspicuous in the middle of the image.
Wait, is that a meteorite I see faintly in the upper right hand corner.
No, I must have just turned my head to quickly with my eyes open; that is the only way I was going to see anything like a meteor shower that night.
For the data hounds who want number and not pictures of stars, planets or Early arrival winter visitors the Tucson MLS Statistics Analysis for July 2007 is available at Tucson Real Estate in The News.
PS. now you know why I was so tired last night and again today. Meteor shower indeed. : )
