My friend Daniel Ball came up with this image. Thanks Daniel

Did it meet the predictions? Who cares! It was spectacular!

I wasn't even sure if I was going to try to see the shower until Saturday morning. For several days prior we had enough rain to cause minor flooding, which is a lot of rain even for Seattle. It was cloudy Saturday morning, but the forecast called for clearing. When I realized that we had a chance I thought I would try my luck at spending the night at the National Park Inn at Mt. Rainier National Park. I called and they had a room, so I booked it. Then I went brain dead. I was so excited about getting out that forgot just about everything that I packed. For the most part forgetting everything was OK except I forgot to grab my fastest lens. I am still kicking myself for that.

My 15-year-old daughter and I headed for the mountain. Can you believe that? I have a wonderful daughter that actually likes to spend time doing astronomy things with her old fart father. She's cool.

At 1:00 AM Sunday morning we headed outside with several layers of coats and clothes and laid out a blanket on the sidewalk in front of the lodge. There were several other guests out too. It was clear, cold and there was a gusty canyon wind blowing, but we were ready.

What a great event! They seemed to come in bunches of at least 2 at a time, with few going 4 or 5 at a time. There was an occasional sporadic, but it was easy to spot the Leonids. They all pointed back to the sickle. It seemed to me at the time that the peak happened between 2:00 and 3:00, and this was verified later by everyone else in the country. My daughter saw a bright one in the Big Dipper (that I missed while chasing the camera) that left a trail for several minutes. I don't think that there was more than a 30-second lag without seeing something.

That night was a flat out miracle for me. When we got up in the morning the clouds had rolled back in and it's been cloudy ever since. What a blessing!

Feel free to use my guest book to talk about your experience. View my guest book here

I didn't get any decent shots but I still have the memory, and everyone else's shots. I'm OK with that, now. I had to get over the photography part of the event. My big mistake was forgetting the fast lens and shooting at f4 all night, but I'm surviving the trauma of it all.

And then there's the rest of the story:
I had to get over the extreme shock of just about having my negatives trashed by the 1-hour photo place at Walmart. I know better. I should practice what I preach, but the drive for instant gratification got the best of me again. When I went to pick up my prints, I was shocked when they pulled my folded negatives out of the envelope, stating that they were all under exposed. Duh! When I gave them the film I told them that they were pictures of the meteor shower, that they were night shots and they would be dark, but somehow the message didn't get through to the right person. When the machine spit out the film as underexposed, that person decided that the whole roll must be trash and folded the negatives accordion style and stuffed them into the envelope. The shift had changed, so the Walmart guy that I was now talking to was not the same person that did the dirty deed. He looked at the negatives and could see the stars and offered to try to print them. I spent that night and the next day stewing and plotting my revenge. I wanted the person that folded my negatives to be fired and I was ready to make a scene when I picked up whatever was salvaged. Fortunately for the person, the same guy that offered to try to print the images was working. He sheepishly showed me what he could print and there they were! I could see stars! I was overjoyed that at least something came out. Three of the prints even had meteors on them! I spared this guy of my wrath and went on my way.

The prints, well, they are not exactly show quality, but I am not trying to win any contests either. I just wanted something to help store my memory of this wonderful event.

By the way, I had two more rolls processed at a different store. This time I gave stern and specific instructions about what to do with my negatives. Sure enough, their machine couldn't print the dark images either, but at least my negatives are intact. I'll take them to my old reliable camera shop and we'll see what comes out.