Orionid campaign

It was the 1st night on the mountain in 7 years. The sky was a lot brighter. There were a lot more cars & buildings on the road. Forgotten experience caused 1 hour of footage to be lost to condensation. Wind does not prevent condensation, a fact the lion of days gone by would have known from recent, painful experience but the lion of today was completely unconscious of.



The past lion would also have known scotch tape was not enough to hold the lens heater on. Some emergency insulation with a sock & an extremely cold foot managed to minimize the condensation without the lens heater firmly attached.

Sadly, the intervalometer immediately fell over, thanks to the tiny switches flaking out in the cold. Back to the switch market with this one.


Snagged 6 in 3 hours of observing. Most of them happened between 2 & 3am.



The mountain was still extremely cold & windy, a fact not forgotten. The wind never ends, even at 2am, when the golf course is a tomb.

The introduction of a feature phone & GSM internet access was the 1st major introduction of civilization to the mountain, 7 years ago. Now, the internets were gone, thanks to inflation, but more civilization arrived in the form of a tablet with a flight simulator.

Sadly, X Plane on Android was extremely limited, with 1980's style featureless terrain. Can't imagine who would pay for those scenery files. Goog flight is now world's ahead, but not available on Android.

There weren't many meteors to see, thanks to the tablet, foggy lens, & wind. The newly brightly lit skies took away the romance & feeling of being in space that once was. Years of running have made the mountain more accessable & less remote.

The tree on the mountain was a bit skimpier. Today's observation was much farther from it than the past. Despite the tablet, equipment was minimal compared to those days. The peak years involved bringing food, a backpack, multiple lenses, & lots of camera mount parts. It's back to just a tripod & camera.