passé passing satellites (Awenda)

Woke at 3-ish. Went to the loo.

Afterwards, I went to the clearing in the centre of the Bear campground, put down my toiletries bag as a prop, and lay on my back.

The stars were beautiful, the Milky Way glowing, Perseus up high.

Immediately I saw satellites. It occurred to me that this is reaching a mundane level. Sadly. There are so many orbitting devices now, with more going up, that we need to take it for granted that we'll see many satellites on a given evening.

I waited for some Perseids.

Surprisingly, the brightest meteor ran parallel to Perseus, bottom to top, through Andromeda, very bright, intense long glowing wake. I'll have to look that one up. (Possibly, an Aquarid or Capricornid but likely a Cygnid.)

It was tempting to stay in the field. I was certainly comfortable. There did not seem to be any bugs. Ha. It occurred to me if I stayed longer, some early risers would find me sleeping... Or trip over me!

Returned to my tent and considered, for a long time, staying up. I knew Mars would be visible... Could watch the sunrise from Kettle's. But, too tired...

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During the day, as I repacked my astronomy gear, I found my Oregon Scientific eb313hg portable weather station. Hadn't seen it for a while so I wasn't sure if I had remembered to bring it.

Low battery warning. Again. I'll have to calculate how long it has been this time! (Since mid-April!) Wow. Gotta go back to The Source (for the first of my two free replacement sets of 2032s).

The station is great for camping! Kinda forgot to use it. Should not be hidden away in the astronomy box...

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Oh to own shares of 2032 batteries.

Let's consider all the things now that I have that uses this type:

• palmtop (as a backup power source): one
• portable weather station: two
• first clip n' lite (white): two
• second clip lite (red): two
• a few of my personal computers use them for CMOS preservation...
  

I'll buy another batch of them from The Source with this replacement guarantee and I'll be set for a while...

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Was hoping for clear skies tonight. Big fluffy clouds through the day, otherwise blue skies.

Had dinner early and then sat in front of the fire. Kept checking the sky. High thin clouds.

As it darkened I kept looking for stars to punch through the clouds and then through the leaves of the canopy. I saw some! Oh!

A little bit later, I spotted Vega. I tried to get my orientation and pick out all of Lyra. When Vega suddenly winked out. That's it then: scattered cloud. We are a no-go.