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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Camping in the Kanakee River State Park for the 2012 Perseids

C.A. Maria and I were thinking about going to the Kankakee area for some overnight camping and Perseid meteor showing watching on the 12th/13th of August.

C.A. Dave says in an earlier post:

Jul 26, 2012 15:21:13 GMT -6 magic612 said:

The Kankakee River State Park has some decent camping spots with not-too-bad views either. You have to go to the Chippewa campground (Potawatomi is WAY too forested), and there are the occasional rowdy and/or "lit up like Times Square" RV set ups, but if you set up in the non-electric section, you can hide from a lot of the lighting, and see quite a bit. It's not 'amazing' but isn't far from Chicago and the hiking is great during the day too (go north across Route 102 and hike up along Rock Creek).

This is good stuff to know...

What area would be best and away from the "masses"?

Perhaps, we could organize a C.A. event out of this...

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Thanks to C.A. Eriks's link, here we can see the amount of light pollution to expect in the Kanakee area...

[atomant]

Having done Astrofest and Prairie Skies in the Kankakee area, you should be able to see and enjoy the Summer Milky Way and the Perseids.

I have not decided whether to do outreach with Adler at Catigny Park or join in with you folks for good ole camping.

[Paulie pchris00]

I'd be up for a camping trip.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

As soggy Perseid camping experience

12/13 August 2012

Usually, I catch the two major meteor showers from Chicago's light polluted skies, enjoying the brighter streaks easily. But this year, I headed out to the Kankakee State Parking and camped over night with Maria, hoping to see fainter Perseids and do some DSO observing with the C11.

We packed all we needed, including astro gear and headed out. Ratching down the C11 Tripod legs to the roof to save room, the bands started to vibrate something awful even before reaching the expressway...

Although the ratchet straps are brand new, it sounded like a WWII fighter - the noise was filling the passenger compartment - I feared they would fail....

Pulling into a fuel depot somewhere in Posen Illinois, I transfer the legs into the SUV and relieved that the the possibility of losing the legs was now taking care of. Back on our way...

Using a Garmen and the Tablet....I follow along our planned route and enjoy seeing what we are passing from above. We started out about 7pm and hoped we would arrive at our camping site before dark. Clouds to the south west seemed like they were breaking up...

...or was it just a large sucker hole?

Closing in to our area, Chicago's lights still pollute the skies...

Just a few minutes away from the Chippewa campgrounds...

...and we are here - just in time too. They close the park at 9:30 pm and we made it with minutes to spare.

My main purpose was to catch darker skies normally not enjoyed by this urban astronomer and quickly scan the skies. With partly cloudy skies now...I saw a much darker and deeper sky - the summer triangle loaded with stars...

I wanted to catch some this darker sky before it closed up on me, but we still had to set up our camp site..

The skies were starting to thicken from the west, but it still allowed me some time to grab my 15x70 binos and scan about some...

I must say that slewing through Cygnus was a treat and I was tempted to set up the C11 quickly, but checking the weather via smartphone, it showed rains arriving. Not worth it...

The laser did announce it's presence...

We prepare a snack at 11:00 pm...

Soon, the skies thickened beyond observability and good that I did not set up the C11. Hoping that later on the skies would clear some, I set my phone for a 3am wake up call, but woke up to drizzle and calls of distant wildlife...



Quite peaceful.

The morning brought more grey skies and light drizzles...

A breakfast of French Toast and Sausage was in order...

We take nap and then go exploring about the area, taking the Kankakee River Trail...

..and ending up by the Kankakee River...

I decided that we will start a rock garden of our trips, starting out with a Kankakee rock...

I enjoyed the flora along the way and stopped often to examine...

On the way back, we took a side trail leading back to the campground...

With that, it was close to the 3pm check out time and we break camp...

All packed up and ready to head to the big city...

Pie called to me en-route....

Hmmmm.......... Key lime pie.

Although there wasn't the astronomy I had hoped for, I did catch a small handful of Perseid meteors and relished in binocular observation laying on our hammock - with associated mosquito bites....

Sometime in late September, we will plan another camping trip and hopefully crisp clear fall skies!

[magic612]

Hey Joe, looks and sounds like you had a nice time! Skies aren't "great" down my way, but they aren't half bad either. The Prairie Skies Star Party is Sept 13-16, and is held at Camp Shaw Waw Na See right nearby to Chippewa campground (in fact, Camp Shaw is arguably better, since it is a very short walk right to Rock Creek and the waterfall!).

Looks like you were set up close to the same spot I set up there last year, though from the pics - not too many campers there?

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Dave,

I took your advice about Chippewa and it worked out well.

I asked the Camp host what area has the largest sky vista, and she assigned lot 89, but said go anywhere I pleased that provided the angles I wanted. Not a lot of campers/RVs at the time, but I did have one annoying family with the LED flashlights washing over my site most of the night.

We passed the Shaw Waw Na See campground and made mention to Maria that we should explore it on a dry day. We did give a drive through in the Potawatomi Campground - just to see. And yes...heavily forested and not conducive for astronomy.

Perhaps we will attend the Prairie Skies event....we'll see.

[magic612]

Prairie Skies is fun - lots of cool local folks, and a decent number from out of state too. Usually around the 200-person mark.

And no annoying LED flashlights from neighbors.

[Paulie pchris00]

Looks like a fun time, but Joe, Joe, Joe...

Garmin? And you posted pictures?!?

I think you lost serious credibility points with that. People like us are supposed to navigate by the stars, even during the day, and when it's cloudy.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

The Garmen's voice is "Samantha"....

And I think she has a crush on me.

[Paulie pchris00]

Aug 19, 2012 11:56:53 GMT -6 Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe said:

The Garmen's voice is "Samantha"....

And I think she has a crush on me.

Well, in that case it's okay.

[RobbW]

Sorry the skies didn't cooperate better for you, Joe. Great report anyway. It's always nice to get out in nature even if the astronomy isn't great. My family and I will be heading out to the Apple River Canyon area in NW Illinois for the new moon weekend in September. Looking forward to some decent darker skies. And then, of course, camping under truly dark skies in New Mexico in October!

[RobbW]

BTW, the lady in my Garmin is named Jill.