Orionids Meteor Watch: Me 1, Skeeters 0

I recently had my second opportunity to join a meteor shower watch, as the Orionids are in full swing. We met at our usual star party location between 4 and 4:30 a.m., hoping for a couple of good viewing hours before daylight.

Paul and Mary were there again—it was just the three of us at my first meteor watch a few months ago. This time I also met a new person named Mark, though I couldn’t pick him out of a lineup because it was pitch-black. That’s the trouble with meeting people at astronomy events.

No moon and clear skies made for a promising session, but I had just one thing on my mind: testing out my new gear.

This isn’t my first rodeo, you see. It’s my second. And what I learned from my first is that meteor watching is completely intolerable because of mosquitoes. Spray doesn’t help. Layers don’t help. Raging definitely doesn’t help. Nothing stops them from coming for me.

So I had to get crafty. If I can’t repel them, I have to make myself completely inaccessible to them. Enter… the mosquito tent.

I found this little treasure on Amazon.
I browsed quite a few options—size and visibility were key. I needed space for a lounge chair and an unobstructed view of the sky. Many models had solid sides or tops, which ruled them out. This one is full mesh—every side, top, and bottom. I kind of wish the bottom were solid, since I’m worried about tearing it, but I’ll just try to be careful.

Meanwhile, I also learned that I needed a zero-gravity lounge chair. Last time I was literally lying on the ground. The alternative was sitting in a regular chair and craning my neck.
I’ve had one on my wishlist since that first meteor watch but, naturally, failed to order in time. I wound up choosing another model to get it here before the shower—a decently priced, quickly shipped set of two.

I learned a third thing as well… but that I forgot. The green laser pointer. Still on my list. So once again I was stuck giving voice commands: “It was over there—to the right—no, further—by the thing—no, the other thing.” Yeah, I really need to remember to buy a pointer.

But at least I remembered the comfort items. Now to cross my fingers and hope the setup works.

Verdict

The tent. Worked. Gangbusters. I honestly can’t believe it. I didn’t get a single bite. Not one! If you follow this blog—or just know me—you know that’s unprecedented. I actually had to ask if mosquitoes were even out that morning. It was emphatically confirmed that they were.

It was a perfect fit, as you can see from the images. Plenty of room for my lounge chair and then some. Two sides have fully zippered openings for easy entry and full protection. There’s a silly, frilly lace trim around the openings (I think the product’s meant for babies or something), but it didn’t get in the way of viewing. The only obstructions were the seams, which were a small price to pay to salvage my blood supply from the heinous critters.

Of course, it’ll be useless for regular star parties or outreach events since you can’t use binoculars or telescopes from inside. But for meteor watching? Absolute perfection.

As for the chair—eh, it was fine. Definitely a vast improvement over a mat on the ground, but it didn’t recline as flat as I’d like. Mary’s model lay nearly flat, while mine stayed at a slight angle—not a problem unless a meteor came from overhead or behind. I just shifted around to face whichever part of the sky was most active.

Maybe one of these days I’ll upgrade to a cushier, flatter recliner. But this will do for now.

The Shower Itself

The shower was pretty low-key. We spotted roughly 40 meteors in two hours—a huge underperformance for the Orionids, I’m told. Paul wondered if the timing might be slowly shifting later due to the precession of the equinoxes—maybe they’ll pick up in a few days.

Still, for me, the experience was a total success. Take that, skeeters.