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Observing Perseids from Glacier Point, Yosemite, 10 August 2006
Going to star party to Glacier Point in Yosemite is exciting, even if it is nearly full moon. We went there to observe Perseids with few dosens of other guests of Tenaya Lodge. The lodge organized the entire event, invited couple of local science teacher as lectors and provided transportation. 

We spent couple of hours on Glacier Point, laying on blankets and looking up in the sky. Moon was almost blindingly bright and we could see only very few bright meteors. One of the local astronomy clubs set up their telescopes near the amphitheater and we had an opportunity to look at several objects. There was a rare large-aperture TeleVue refractor (only very few were made) pointed at Moon. It was giving an incredibly sharp view on craters. Another refractor was equipped with binoviewer and it was even more exciting. The surface of Moon was appearing nearly three-dimensional through it. Couple of large aperture (10-12 inch) scopes were pointing at different targets, but Moon was too bright to enjoy the view. Though Dumbbell Nebula was still very impressive through narrow band nebular filter.

       
Glacier Point Star party and some of its participants,
filmed with Sony TRV25 in super night shot mode.
After returning to the lodge we kept looking into the sky and counting meteors. Unfortunately the count didn't go too high - Moon was climbing up, security lights were on and also quite bright, so only very few meteors could be visible through this illumination. (Interesting enough, most bright meteors were random ones, not coming from the radiant.) Nevertheless the party was very memorable and definitely worth to attend.

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