Pre-dawn Peak of Leonid Meteor Shower + Stargazing Hike at Mason Mill Park

IN a NUTSHELL:  Calling fellow skygazing enthusiasts who don't mind occasionally being early risers!  We intend to enjoy the famous Leonid Meteor Shower, and for sure we can get in a scenic pre-dawn "stargazing night hike."
  The annual Leonid shower is expected to peak during the pre-dawn hours of Friday Nov 17th.  Nicknamed "Shooting Stars" or "Falling Stars" meteors are about the same brightness as stars when viewed at night.  They're actually bits of fast-moving comet or asteroid debris that produce sudden bright streaks of light when colliding at supersonic speeds with the earth's atmosphere.
  Friday's early morning forecast expects clear skies and NO chance of rain - but temperatures in the low 40s, so bundle up!  (The meteors are expected to remain at peak thru the wee hours of Sat AM the 18th - but the forecast predicts some cloudiness then - so Fri AM is probably our better choice.)  We'll begin the event with meteor viewing from the high dark-sky wooden deck on the PATH trail near the Mason Mill parking lot.  At an appropriate time we'll include also a scenic night or twilight hike during which we may continue to see a few meteors.  Our good old "Naked Eyes" are fine for this event - both for meteor viewing and most other objects, but if you have a pair of binoculars consider bringing them for zooming in on amazing objects such as the Great Orion Nebula and varous planets - I'll be glad to use my own laser pointer and binoculars to show you some of these.  A "bonus" for early morning viewers this year is that the moon will be at "New" phase, meaning great sky darkness.  If present the moon would greatly reduce the visibility of meteors, stars, the Milky Way, etc.

MEETUP SPOT and EVENT "TIMETABLE":  We'll gather a few minutes before 5:30 AM in Mason Mill Park's free parking lot—by the stone restroom building.  See Directions below.  After introductions it's just a 3- or 4-minute walk via the "PATH" trail to a high boardwalk with a wooden deck.  We'll regroup there and depending on the amount of cloud cover can "skygaze" for meteors, stars and planets - see more details below.  At an appropriate time during the event we'll enjoy a leisurely paced Hike on the PATH Trail and may include a couple of scenic creekside loops beside the   Our total hiking distance will be no more than 2 miles.  Our target time for concluding the event is 7:30 AM, but anyone is welcome to "split" at any time provided you let us know you're doing so.  It's easy to get back to our cars.

MORE about the LEONIDS and other METEOR SHOWERS:  During the 3rd week of November each year we have a very reliable "meteor shower" called the Leonids. From the high deck discussed above, we're likely to see numerous bright meteors as we've enjoyed doing on several other similar Mason Mill events in the past.  For spotting meteors it's best just to relax supine on a beach towel or pad and stare upward with our naked eyes.  I can use my green laser pointer to point out other cool celestial objects including the meteor shower's "radiant" (apparent origin point) in the constellation Leo, which is high overhead during pre-dawn viewing here in GA each November.
  Annual meteor showers such as the Leonids are caused by debris deposited around the sun over millions of years by successive solar orbits of various comets.  Each such "shower" has a specific "parent comet."  When a comet nears the sun, its nucleus sheds clouds of rubble that spread out along its orbit, creating a continuous stream of debris that continues moving through the vacuum of space in roughly the same orbit as its "parent."  Each time Earth passes through one of these streams the planet gets a meteor shower.  The cosmic "parent" of the Leonid shower is is a very reliable comet called "Tempel-Tuttle."  During the 3rd week of November each year its ancient debris stream extends like a long cylinder, from the colliding earth toward a radiant in the constellation Leo.
  The particles' rapid collisions with the Earth's atmosphere cause the sky to glow with brief streaks of light, usually about the same brightness as stars - hence the nickname "shooting stars."  Most comet particles (a.k.a. "meteoroids") that become meteors are hardly bigger than grains of sand and completely vaporize from the friction of their high-speed collision with the atmosphere.  Larger comet particles can become bright "fireball meteors" that may streak all the way across the sky, and if they can survive the remaining friction may actually impact on the Earth as "meteorites."
  The stream of a comet's debris particles colliding with the Earth can be likened to a blizzard of snowflakes hitting the windshield of a fast-moving car, and their radial pattern seems to come from a "bull's eye" at a particular radiant spot in space (as shown in the graphic above).  The observed meteor streaks associated with a particular shower can appear with almost equal likelihood in any part of the sky, but their imaginary paths when extended backward seem to have originated at the same radiant (such as this one's in Leo).  On any given night there will be "sporadic" meteors streaking through various parts of the sky that are not associated with any particular comet and have no known radiant.

FOR MORE about the LEONID METEOR SHOWER click this link: http://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/everything-you-need-to-know-leonid-meteor-shower

ABOUT the PARKS & TRAILS:  Mason Mill and Medlock are two adjoining DeKalb County parks just east of Clairmont Road that are conveniently connected via a network of scenic shady hiking/biking trails and boardwalks.  The mile-long South Peachtree Creek Trail is the main trail that links them, and like the "Silver Comet" was designed and built to the high standards of the "PATH Foundation."  It features a half-mile-long raised wooden deck through the forest canopy above the creek.  Another portion of this trail is an amazing high wooden walkway and deck that cross the railroad tracks and give hikers nice views of ruins of the early-20th-Century "Decatur Waterworks."  Just last winter the PATH foundation also completed a new multimillion-dollar mile-long deck and boardwalk between the Mason Mill Park parking lot and North Druid Hills Road.  We AOCers have enjoyed including it in most of our Mason Mill hikes.  There are also several miles of smaller wooded trails in the vicinity that are fun to explore along the various creek banks, hills and old ruins.

FOR a COLOR MAP of SOUTH PEACHTREE CK TRAIL and its adjoining Mason Mill & Medlock parklands, etc. click on this link:  http://pathfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/south-peachtree-creek-trail.pdf

DIRECTIONS from the I-85 CLAIRMONT ROAD EXIT in NE METRO ATLANTA:  [Special Note:  If you plan to drive directly from the AOC Social to this event as I intend to do, you can reach the Clairmont exit easily in about 10 minutes as follows:  From the Hudson Grille go north on Roswell Rd 0.7 mile to Abernathy Rd, turn Right, and go just over 1 mile to the GA-400 South entrance ramp on your Right.  Take GA-400 South about 9 miles and exit onto I-85 North.  About 3 miles ahead exit to your Right at the Clairmont Rd exit and turn Right toward Decatur using the following standard "Mason Mill Park" numbered directions.]

1. From the I-85 "Clairmont" exit (Exit #91) take Clairmont Road southward (toward Decatur) 2.3 miles to the traffic light at McConnell Drive. (This is the first light south of the much busier junction and light at North Druid Hills Road).

2. Turn Left onto McConnell Drive, go 0.1 mile ahead and turn Right at the stop sign to stay on McConnell (following signs toward Mason Mill Park and DeKalb Tennis Center).

4. Almost immediately ahead turn Left at the Mason Mill Park entrance sign into the large free parking lot.  We'll gather by the stone Restroom building adjoining the children's playground near the Park entrance.

For a Map or Zoomable Satellite View of this Meetup Spot click the square blue & green "Event Location" icon near the top of this article.

GPS or GOOGLE.com/maps USERS:  You can augment the above directions by entering as your Destination the following Street Address or Lat/Lon Coordinates of the Mason Mill Park parking lot where we meet:
  1322 McConnell Drive, Decatur, GA 30033
  33.8079,-84.3066
The 1322 McConnell Drive address is a "virtual address" of the parking lot entrance gate.

Free Event with Free Parking!