Pre-dawn Peak of Perseid Meteor Shower + Hike & Sunrise at Mason Mill Park

Sky Clarity is looking good!  The latest "spot forecast" for NE Atlanta for 5:00-7:00 AM Sunday (as of Noon on Sat) expects only about 15% of the sky to be obscured by clouds during this event.  I consider it likely that we'll spot lots of Perseids as we have in previous years.  In any case I'm sure we'll enjoy the stars, planets, sunrise and pre-dawn summer coolness regardless of our success with the meteor shower. -Charlie

IN a NUTSHELL:  Calling fellow skygazing enthusiasts who don't mind occasionally being early risers!  With a little luck with the weather, etc. we can enjoy the famous Perseid Meteor Shower and for sure we can get in some cool pre-dawn hiking.
The Perseids are expected to be near their annual peak visibility between about 1:00 AM and 7:00 AM on the mornings of Sun Aug 12th and Mon Aug 13th.  Nicknamed "Shooting Stars" or "Falling Stars," meteors are about the same brightness as stars when they appear in the sky 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.
  Sunday's early morning forecast (as of Fri AM) expects relatively cloud-free skies, with ideal temperatures in the low 70s.  We'll begin the event with meteor viewing (weather permitting) from the high dark-sky wooden deck on the "PATH trail" near the Mason Mill parking lot.  A bonus for Perseid viewers anywhere on Earth this year is that the moon will be just past its NEW phase during the shower's Aug 11-13 "peak," so there will be little or no moonlight to obscure the brightness of meteors - or stars, planets, the Milky Way, etc.
  At an appropriate time we'll include also a scenic night or twilight hike during which we're likely to continue seeing 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 the Andromeda Galaxy, the Great Orion Nebula, Mars, Saturn etc.  (Correction Sat evening:  Mars & Saturn will have already set by 5AM, but other fine sky objects include the Pleiades, the Perseus "double cluster," etc.)  Thanks to my friend and fellow "astro-buff" Herm Donatelli who plans to join us and share views of these amazing objects through his telescope & binoculars.  Also I'll bring my own laser pointer and binocs to help everyone spot and enjoy them. 

MEETUP SPOT and EVENT "TIMETABLE":  We'll gather a few minutes before 5:00 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 take a leisurely paced Night / Twilight Hike on the PATH Trail and may include creekside loops on a couple of the smaller trails - with total hiking distance no more than ~2 miles.  Sunday's Sunrise will be at 6:57 AM and with luck we'll have some gorgeous color in the eastern sky!  Our target time for concluding the event will be 7:00 AM, but anyone is welcome to let us know if you wish to "split" and head home at any time, esp. if the cloud cover ends up being a bit too great for good viewing.  Also, if there's enough interest I hope you'll join me for a little more optional hiking and exploration until perhaps about 7:30 AM.

MORE about the PERSEIDS and other METEOR SHOWERS:  During the 2nd week of August each year our entire planet is treated to a very reliable "meteor shower" called the Perseids.  If the weather cooperates this weekend we're likely to see numerous bright Perseid meteors from the high Mason Mill Park deck as we have from that convenient local vantage point in past years.  For spotting them it's best just to relax supine on a beach towel or yoga mat and stare upward with our naked eyes.  I'll bring my green laser pointer to point out other cool celestial objects including the meteor shower's "radiant" (apparent origin point) in the constellation Perseus, which is high overhead during pre-dawn viewing here in GA each August.
  Annual meteor showers such as the Perseids, Leonids, Geminids, etc. 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, creating a stream of particles that continues moving through the vacuum of space in roughly the same orbit as the comet.  Each time Earth passes through one of these streams our planet gets a meteor shower.  The cosmic "parent" of the Perseid shower is is a very reliable comet named Swift-Tuttle that orbits the sun every 133 years.  Each August its fast-moving debris stream extends like a long cylinder from the Earth toward its radiant in the constellation Perseus.
  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 likelinood 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 in Perseus).
  On any given night there are also "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 PERSEID METEOR SHOWER click this link:  http://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/everything-you-need-to-know-perseid-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.  A spectacular portion of this trail is the amazing high wooden walkway and "astronomy deck" that overlooks the historic ruins of the early-20th-Century "Decatur Waterworks."

FOR a COLOR MAP of SOUTH PEACHTREE CK TRAIL and its adjoining Mason Mill & Medlock parklands, etc. click 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: 

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).

3. 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 either of the following as your Destination Address:
  1300 McConnell Drive, Decatur, GA 30033 (a "virtual street address" for the Park entrance.)
  33.8079, -84.3066 (Lat/Lon of Restroom meetup spot.  Be sure to include comma & minus sign.)

Free Event with Free Parking!