Borrego Springs - tau Herculids Meteor Shower

The night of Memorial Day was moonless and with the possibility of a meteor storm, I loaded up and for an overnight to Borrego Springs.

As typical I stopped a Dudley’s Bakery in Santa Ysabel for a Baja sandwich that will make two meals.

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I miss-timed my arrival to Christmas Circle

to attend the complete Veterans Memorial Service, provided by the local American Legion Post 853.  But did catch the bugler playing Taps and the honor guard providing a 21 gun salute.

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This Scout Car was used by General Patton while training in Anza Borrego was on display

From Christmas Circle I stopped to top off the truck.  If cost is any indication of quality, Borrego must have some real quality fuel!

gas 6.89;6.99;7.09 - diesel 6.89

The road up to Font’s Point required 4x4.  That’s not usually the case, but the sand and ruts were pretty deep.

At mid-day I was the only one there for about half hour.  It was a nice visit with dad.

After Font’s Point I drove over to the American Legion

with the idea of taking a picture of the Missing Man Table that is always there.  I think all of Borrego was there!  Burgers and war stories for some 500 guests.  Here's a picture from the web of a Missing Man Table.

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After the flag raising, I left in search of cactus that might still be in bloom.  What rain that does fall in this area will drain into the Texas Dip.  Nope nothing there.

I headed over to Ocotillo Wells, with the idea to set up my camp there at one of the provided shelters.  Free camping, with showers available kinda appealed to me.  Altho not crowded, the activity was hectic and the sites near the showers taken by two large groups, so moving on.

Slowjamastan is just a bit further east on CA78.  Unlike my last visit there has been noticeable progress.

The boundary fence marks the territorial boarder with the US.

Altho I got a good chuckle out of this warning sign, I did not test it for accuracy

With the population now around 200 Slowjamastanies, I was not surprised to see property signs going up.  This lot belongs to the Palmer family.

I returned to Borrego Springs with the thought the ocotillo garden in Coyote Canyon might have some color left to photograph.

I’ve never encountered such deep sand in Coyote Canyon, again I’d advise 4x4.

A surprising number of ocotillo have suffered from the drought.

Some have succumbed

The ocotillo is drought deciduous, dropping it’s leaves when water is not available.  This one is waiting for better times ahead.

None had any leaves and  Coyote Creek was dry.

I set up camp on the east side of Peg Leg Smith, which is just a short drive way.

The meteor shower radiant should be directly overhead near Arcturus.

I’m the only one here!  Despite a chance for a once-in-a-lifetime astronomical event it’s just me.

Unfortunately, not only did the meteor storm not occur, the wind was Biblical!  I did see several small slow moving particles that went ‘poof’ in a bright burst.  And several ‘streakers’, that started dim, become bright streaks, before fading away.  There some meteors, just not the anticipated 'storm'.

Although the tau Herculids were just a mediocre performance, I enjoyed the day in Borrego Springs.

A Return to Palomar Mountain

Although past its peak the Persied Meteor Shower still makes a nightly appearance in the mid-August night.  Knowing there would be a moonless night sky we made our plans for a few nights of camping.

The east grade road is the easiest approach for the RV although that route adds almost 20 miles to the trip.

The viewpoint offers a nice break overlooking Lake Henshaw and the surrounding valley and distant hills.

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As with our previous trips we again reserved site #40 at Observatory Campground.  The site is reasonably level, has its own telescope pad and long enough the kids could join us for a quick overnight.

After setting up camp we took some time to walk around the campground.  Aj found a fun little log swing we all took a turn on.

Across the foot bridge are two walk in campsites.

a cut oak trunk looks to be a perfect axe throwing target.  Kg took a picture of the rings, so we could get an idea of the age of this old oak.

There are several of these majestic oak trees in the campground, perhaps a few more will have to be removed as they are suffering with our continued drought.

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We had a couple daily visitors that made for a little fun.  One standing guard

while the other enjoyed lunch.

The kids had to leave early to return home.  School is starting for the girls.

When I camped here last November it was 24F, this time Fran noticed it’s predicted to be 106F.  HOT!

In the shade of our awning it easily passed 106, topping out just below 110F.  The old Coleman roof air struggled at keeping us comfy below 88 inside.

Our final morning we wandered up the Observatory Trail a bit over a half mile to the overlook.  This is the closest place with a cell signal, and we wanted to check in with the kids. 

The observatory, visitor center and gift shop remain covid-closed, but I was able to visit last November - those pictures are HERE. 

None of my night pictures turned out, just blackness.  But we did enjoy some special views of Jupiter and Saturn.  I saw a few meteors, but the Milky Way didn't develop as crisp as I hoped.  There was some high haze in the air.  California is having a nasty fire season with 560 separate fires active as I type this, a few of which contributed to the haze.

All of the BayfieldBunch has reported issues with the the new Blogger interface.  ARG!  For this post I composed the text in OLW, but I had to use Blogger's 'insert image' -> 'upload from computer' options to place the images directly into the blog.  I then cut'n'pasted the HTML source code back into OLW to size the images to fit within the margins of the blog and then reposted.  Awkward, slow and must be online the entire compose/edit session.  Pretty Lame!

I certainly miss Open Live Writer, when the entire post could be composed offline and then uploaded with images!  Ah those were the days ...

Continue to Stay Safe! 

Observatory Campground - Mt Palomar

I knew my chance of seeing any of the Alpha Monocerotid Meteor Shower was zero, I'm too far west.  But I could hope that there would be a few outside the main event.  The east coast prediction was of 400 meteors an hour ... it was just too tempting.

Plans were made months ago to a spend couple nights on Mt Palomar at the Observatory Campground.  Even without the meteor shower, the sky would be moon-less ... perfect conditions for setting up my telescope.

I reserved site #40, a site with its own telescope pad, this is the same great site we had on our last trip here.

The East Grade Road from Lake Henshaw is an easier assent for an RV than the steep climb up the South Grade Road from Escondido.  There’s a nice viewpoint overlooking Lake Henshaw on the way, which would be an awesome stop on a clear day.

But today is not a clear day!  Fog and low clouds prevail, the predicted sun has not yet shown up.  

Not only was the meteor shower a dud on the east coast, it was in the midst of our first winter storm on the west coast.  Neither Fran, nor her brother Bobby, decided to join me.  Good decision!

There’s still patches of snow at my campsite.  No surprise I’m the only one here.

Last time here Fran and I took the Observatory Trail up to Palomar Observatory.  This time I only went as far as the Mendenhall Valley overlook to get a cell signal and text Fran of my safe arrival.

The trail is easy to follow despite being covered in oak leaves and acorns.

Overnight the temperature dropped to 24 F, a new low for the RV.  I never even considered setting up the telescope.  However, when I looked out at 4am the sky was clear and filled with stars, but it was 24 degrees!

It began warming quickly as the sun melted the frozen dew from the grasses.  A beautiful dawn, but another bitter night being predicted.

I decided not to stay another night.  But waited for the Visitor Center to open at 9 am.  When I arrived the snow was still being plowed from the parking lot.

The museum has improved several times over the years.  Definitely worth a stop.

The 200" mirror was brought to California from new York aboard a specially modified flatbed rail car.

The big dome housing the Hale Telescope is impressive against the blue sky.

The astronomer can still sit in the booth at the top of the yellow stairs, just below the 200” mirror.  However, most of the real science is done by the computers located well below ground level.

Campground Overview:
RVs up to 32’ are welcome, as are pets on leash although no pets on the trails.
There is a large presence of poison oak surrounding the campground and along the trails.
Hot showers take quarters
This is our go-to campground ($15/7.50), over either the Palomar Mountain State Park ($30) or Fry Creek ($15/7.50).
No cell service in the campground, nor at Palomar Observatory
No auto services on the mountain
The only restaurant on the mountain is Mother's Kitchen, a fun vegetarian/vegan restaurant 

image from shutter stock

I have added the pancreatic cancer purple ribbon to support Our Awesome Travels.  I had the pleasure of meeting George and Suzie last year at Pegleg Smith near Borrego Springs.  Instead of enjoying the warmth of the desert southwest, this winter George is fighting a battle with pancreatic cancer in Stratford, Ontario.