Eastern Sierra Skies

Monday evening, Onion Valley campground in the Eastern Sierra west of Independence. We're nearly surrounded by mountains, from the east-southeast through the south, west, north, and north-northeast: mountains that rise two or three thousand feet above our elevation (about 9200'). The sun has set below the western ridge (Kearsarge Pass), though it's not nearly sunset yet.

High in the southeast, there's Jupiter. Wow: it's still this early, and there's Jupiter! (Why Jupiter? It was in about the right spot, and Jupiter is the brightest object in the night sky besides the moon: it had to be Jupiter.)

Then, I looked around the sky a bit more. There's another bright something very near the zenith. And another, forming a lovely triangle. Then, I realized: that first object is not Jupiter: it's Altair! Wow: the sky's so dark that Altair seems as bright as Jupiter has in town.

Then, the stars started coming out. With the ridge to the south, the moon wasn't even nearly up yet—at least, it's not "up" enough to wash out the stars. The Milky Way is lovely, stretching from Sagittarius past the constellations of the Summer Triangle and into Cassiopeia. Incredible!

We awoke at 1:30 on Tuesday morning to view the Perseids. Though Jupiter was now up, the moon was no longer up. It was a very pretty shower and, for the first time, I saw Delphinus!

Despite the interrupted sleep, it was a wonderful night.