Whale-ista
Super Nomad
Posts: 2009
Registered: 2-18-2013
Location: San Diego
Member Is Offline
Mood: Sunny with chance of whales
|
|
Share your memorable Baja celestial viewing experiences
So, last night's mythical meteor shower got me thinking: what have people seen in skies over Baja or elsewhere that was memorable, planned or
otherwise? Did you ever schedule travels specifically to see the Perseids or other events? Eclipses (solar/lunar)?
(In July 1991, I think the total solar eclipse was briefly visible from southern Baja...)
Comets? Meteors? Other notable sights?
I love Baja skies on moonless nights when the Milky Way is a cloud overhead, but I've never been there for "special events" like last night.
My first (unplanned) experience of a "meteor shower" was in August, nearly 30 yrs ago, on the north shore of Kauai, after backpacking 12 miles along
the Na Pali coast.
No lights for miles, perfectly clear skies (unusual that time of year), and I did not know the Perseid shower would be making its annual appearance.
We marveled at all the "shooting stars," appearing almost constantly overhead, several every minute.
It was magical and completely unplanned. I remember thinking that was the norm for Kauai.
Anyone ever have a similar experience in Baja?
\"Probably the airplanes will bring week-enders from Los Angeles before long, and the beautiful poor bedraggled old town will bloom with a
Floridian ugliness.\" (John Steinbeck, 1940, discussing the future of La Paz, BCS, Mexico)
|
|
|
Gulliver
Senior Nomad
Posts: 651
Registered: 11-18-2013
Member Is Offline
|
|
In the early nineties on my sailboat in the Puerto Escondido area I could regularly see both zodiacal lights, extending from the East and West towards
the zenith and following the zodiac, and at the same time see the Gegenschein, a diffuse area of light that is always exactly opposite the sun. It is
sunlight reflected off of the solar wind tail steaming away from earth into space.
With the milky way and the two columns of light extending towards the diffuse spot slightly to the South of the zenith, I felt like I was a Bedouin in
the desert thinking up some new crazy religion.
|
|
|
astrobaja
Senior Nomad
Posts: 952
Registered: 5-22-2006
Location: near San Pedro Martir Park
Member Is Offline
Mood: beam me up
|
|
Well given how cloudless a lot of Baja California is (and mostly devoid of light pollution) there are a LOT of opportunities for special celestial
observing experiences. That is a big part of the reason why we moved here to the Sierra de San Pedro Martir!!
One of the more special ones was seeing comet Panstarrs emerging out the west with a sliver cresent moon, it was right by our house with a view to
Punta Colonet some 45km to the west. Quite breath-taking!!
https://imageshack.com/i/5xcometpanstarrsj
Another time was observing and imaging the moon at km 72 of the camino observatorio with almost no atmospheric turbulence last june (the type of
turbulence which causes the stars to twinkle and smears any fine details the the eyepiece of a telescope)
Here is the crater Plato (be sure to expand the view to full screen)
https://imageshack.com/i/nm7ya0j
The summer milky way is always mind-boggling just to view with the naked eye!
[Edited on 5-24-2014 by astrobaja]
\"There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear
and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable.There is another theory which states that this has already happened\"
Douglas Adams
our website: http://bajadarkskies.com |
|
|
sancho
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 2524
Registered: 10-6-2004
Location: OC So Cal
Member Is Offline
|
|
In San Felipe some 10 yrs. + ago, walking back from the
bano 2 am to the tent, when I remembered that Comet Hale Bop,
I believe it was called, looked up to see a streak across
the sky that looked like it took up 25% of sky
|
|
|
Paula
Super Nomad
Posts: 2219
Registered: 1-5-2006
Location: Loreto
Member Is Offline
|
|
Friends came down for a mule trip in the Sierra de San Francisco in February, 2008, when there was a full lunar eclipse. We hadn't planned the trip
with the eclipse in mind, it was a bonus on our ride. On the first two nights, I was sorry that due to the bright moon we didn't see the stars to
their best effect. Of course when the moon was in full shadow the stars shown in full brilliance for a short time in Santa Teresa campground. It was
magical, and unforgettable!
|
|
|
David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64754
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline
Mood: Have Baja Fever
|
|
About 1980, camping on Shell Island (20 miles south of San Felipe) with friends, one of the girls in our group looked up from the campfire and saw the
sky was 'on fire'!
We all walked away from the light of the campfire to see the reddish glow in the sky... it was to the northeast as if above Puerto Peņasco, across the
gulf.
We had never seen the sky glowing in the night like this. One of us wondered if it had anything to do with the Space Shuttle, which happened to be in
orbit that weekend... maybe an experiment?
Upon our return to Escondido and seeing the news, we learned there was an unusual far south appearance of the Northern Lights or Aurora Borealis.
Perhaps because I didn't have on my glasses, but I did not see the motion or same thing we had seen in movies to recognize the glowing as the Aurora.
None of us had lived north of San Diego to have ever seen it either.
From Wiki... looked close to this image:
[Edited on 5-24-2014 by David K]
|
|
|
windgrrl
Super Nomad
Posts: 1329
Registered: 9-2-2006
Member Is Offline
|
|
1. A UFO that turned out to be one of those plastic bag and candles rigs.
2. Lots of meteors this winter, with a big twin-tailed green fireball that streaked south over La Ribera.
3. Lots of iridium flares and ISS sightings.
4. Mercury
[Edited on 5-24-2014 by windgrrl]
When the way comes to an end, then change. Having changed, you pass through.
~ I-Ching
|
|
|
mikeymarlin
Junior Nomad
Posts: 94
Registered: 3-17-2014
Member Is Offline
|
|
about 1996???? was living in Buena Vista---- stayed into July something to see the SOLAR ECLIPSE----anyone else this OLD ?????- it was very
weird--as it darkened
the birds quit flying and singing , and it got very still and quiet --for maybe 20 minutes--then it started to get lite--the sun started to
reappear--(in the middle of the sky ) well, it seemed like 8 sunrises that week !!
|
|
|
Gulliver
Senior Nomad
Posts: 651
Registered: 11-18-2013
Member Is Offline
|
|
It was 1991. Saw it while floating on my back on an air mattress in LaPaz harbor.
|
|
|
David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64754
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline
Mood: Have Baja Fever
|
|
| Quote: | Originally posted by mikeymarlin
about 1996???? was living in Buena Vista---- stayed into July something to see the SOLAR ECLIPSE----anyone else this OLD ?????- it was very
weird--as it darkened
the birds quit flying and singing , and it got very still and quiet --for maybe 20 minutes--then it started to get lite--the sun started to
reappear--(in the middle of the sky ) well, it seemed like 8 sunrises that week !! |
Here is the eclipse web page I made from photos provided by 'M'... You will see Nomad Graham in one: http://www.vivabaja.com/eclipse/index.html
|
|
|
El Jefe
Super Nomad
Posts: 1027
Registered: 10-27-2003
Location: South East Cape
Member Is Offline
|
|
In 1986 my boys and a friend of mine pulled out at a wide spot in the road to spend the night on the way south right where hwy 1 turns inland towards
El Rosario, south of San Quintin. It was about an hour after dark and I was too tired to go on.
As we got out of the van, there in the sky brighter than we could believe was Halley's comet. What a great thing to share with my little nine and ten
year old boys. We still talk about that night now and then. I don't expect to be around to see it again in 2061 but i hope they will see it and think
of that magical night long ago.
No b-tchin\' in the Baja.
|
|
|
elgatoloco
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 4332
Registered: 11-19-2002
Location: Yes
Member Is Offline
|
|
May 2002 we were camped at Requeson and we saw Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, Venus & Mercury all at the same time. So did everyone else who was camped
there at that time, I made sure of it. 
We are planning a return trip to see it when it happens again in 2040. 
MAGA
Making Attorneys Get Attorneys
|
|
|
mikeymarlin
Junior Nomad
Posts: 94
Registered: 3-17-2014
Member Is Offline
|
|
thanks for the correction GULLIVER---- this is what happens when you get OLD !!! I just couldn't recall ---wow --that was a long time ago--
|
|
|
![[*]](images/xmbforum/default_icon.gif){kind=icon}
