I don't know why I didn't take pics...the moon was bright enough for sure.

I went to the Summer Meteor Shower! event held at the Pedernales Falls State Park last night

I had planned to go, changed my mind and decided not to go, and then changed my mind again when a friend of mine needed to get out of her house.

I am glad she called, because this was such a beautiful evening and venue.

It was an hour drive from Austin, and I have always like driving through the Hill Country, day and night. About halfway there, I realized that the sky looked hazy from inside the car. Luckily, that was just the view from inside the car.

The stars at night are big and bright
Deep in the heart of Texas

Once we got to the park and out of the car, the stars were bright indeed! You gotta love getting away from light pollution!

Stonehenge Amphitheater

The event was held at an amphitheater at the trailhead of the horse-riding trail. There were more than 50 people there. And the pictures don't do the beauty of these stones under the bright moon justice!

Image Source here

At about 10:30, the park ranger gave a presentation on the constellations. He pointed out the ones we could see in the summer night, and gave their backstories from native American and Greek (mostly Greek) mythology. Scorpius, Cassiopa, Draco, and of course the Big and Little Dippers. He also pointed out how many of these constellations had similar mythologies across many cultures. So many people saw the Bear in the Big Dipper across the world.

So we chatted quietly and waited for meteors after that (there were two instances of oohs and awws during the presentation, but we missed these ourselves). I only saw one meteor, but it was a good one, streaking red across the low horizon. FWIW, the bulk of meteor activity happens after midnight. The rangers were cool, and extended the event til 12:30, but even that was before most meteors would be seen. There were 6 oohs and awws over the event, and both me and my friend saw one apiece that did not garner crowd awe (and of course, neither of us saw the one the other saw LOL).

And then a pleasant drive back to Austin, and a late night dinner at Whataburger.

TPWD runs these events every couple of weeks. You can check at the website or the farcebook links above for more event listings...and at other TPWD parks, as well!

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