Life loves to throw us all lessons in patience.

Mountain Goat and I are in the midst of some major (good) life changes that have, until recently, been going smoothly overall, but are now being delayed repeatedly due to circumstances outside our control. We are doing what we can to be patient, but OMG it is a challenge.

I promise more details will be coming soon.

In the meantime, we are at the peak of a meteor shower, Geminids, and starting another, Ursids. The peak of Geminids coincides with a full moon this year, so I took the chance to head to the coast a few nights before the peak to try to capture some meteors.

I checked my weather sites to verify that the skies would be clear- I also knew a big storm was headed our direction in the days to follow. Thankfully, my sources promised me clear skies through the night

I gathered my gear and went to bed early, woke up at 12:30AM and set out for the coast. As I drove, I passed through thick fog, thick enough to slow me down to be safe. I worried that there might be fog at the coast if this was this bad, but it has seemed lately that even when it’s foggy inland, it’s clear at the coast, which is completely backwards from my prior experiences at the coast.

I arrived at Goat Rock around 2AM, just as the orange glow of the waxing gibbous moon set into the sea from the nearly cloudless sky. I set up my camera in a spot I have shot many times and took a couple of test shots, one of which included a meteor, but also included a strange beam of light that isn’t normally there (in hindsight, a contrail perhaps?).

Geminids meteor, vertically in the middle of the shot

I considered my options and looked a bit to the north in time to see a huge slow-moving fireball move south to north just above the horizon. I watched in awe and wished my camera was capturing at that moment!

I moved to another reliable spot down the road to try to get better lighting but still capture the arch I love to include in many of my shots when I shoot at this location. The wind was significantly stronger here, but my tripod stood firm. I set up the shot, set my interval timer, and watched the sky for awhile, enjoying several meteors. I watched the lights of boats slowly moving in the distance and listened to the powerful waves crashing below. Eventually, I went back to my truck to sleep, waking periodically to ensure that my camera was still upright and taking shots, with the wind rocking the truck, lulling me to sleep.

Around 5AM it was time to leave, and I looked right as my battery died and my screen went black. I collected my gear, removed the camera from the tripod and plugged it in, and started warming my engine, scanning through the shots quickly while I sat. I saw one meteor clearly captured right before the camera shut down, but I knew I’d need to go through each shot on my computer to see what else I’d captured. The best ones weren’t the ones I could see on my camera monitor.

When going through my shots later, I was surprised by the colors that appeared in the photos. I’d read that Perseids meteors are usually green and pink, but several of these were as well. The colors come from the elements in the meteor, so according to my research, I captured a lot of magnesium that morning.

Now I’m planning my calendar for more meteor showers, hopefully in more incredible locations!