The Best Dates to See Meteor Showers and Shooting Stars in the Boundary Waters

Plan your next Boundary Waters canoe trip for the best chance of seeing shooting stars! You’ll escape light pollution and find the Boundary Waters is a great location to view meteor showers. Imagine lying on your back after a day of paddling and seeing shooting stars all around you! Here are the dates and descriptions for some of the major meteor showers of the 2012 paddling season.

May 5-6, 2012  Eta Aquarids
If you’re planning an early trip to the Boundary Waters this season, try staying up late or waking up early to catch these shooting stars. Look toward the southeastern part of the sky at about 4 a.m. until just before dawn and see if you can spot the brightest stars in May!
Moonrise: 8:23p.m.  Moonset: 5:07a.m.
Sunset: 8:25p.m.  Sunrise: 5:42a.m.

July 28-29, 2012  Delta Aquarids:
Look for shooting stars between moonset and dawn for this meteor shower. In the Boundary Waters, you may see 15-20 meteors per hour in the southern part of the sky. Typically, your best bet at catching these shooting stars is approximately 2 hours before dawn.
Moonrise: 4:57p.m. Moonset: 12:57a.m.
Sunset: 8:49p.m.  Sunrise: 5:39a.m. 

August 12-13, 2012  Perseids:
This is the big one!  It is expected by many to be the best meteor shower of the season.  In the dark sky, these meteors can peak at over 50 each hour. These meteors are often bright and leave persistent trains. Look for them late into the night and into the early hours of the morning.  Photographer Layne Kennedy joined us for several cloud-free nights in the BWCA during the Perseids.  In the above image taken on Lake Agnes, he captured not one, but TWO shooting stars in the same exposure. Look closely. Both shooting starts are in front of the lighter-colored Milky Way.  During this dramatic celestial display, we laid on our backs for hours on a rock point, repeatedly exclaiming, “there’s one.”  We spotted as many as a half dozen in a single minute. 
Moonrise: 1:04a.m. Moonset: 5:00p.m.
Sunset: 8:26p.m.  Sunrise: 6:00a.m. 

October 7, 2012  Draconids:
This meteor shower is best viewed in the northern hemisphere, especially in light pollution-free places like the Boundary Waters! Unlike most, this meteor shower is best viewed in the evening rather than after midnight. Additionally, the number of meteors per hour is difficult to predict for this shower – some years there’s a handful of meteors and other years can have hundreds! Moonrise: 11:29p.m. Moonset: 2:12p.m.
Sunset: 6:35p.m.  Sunrise: 7:15a.m. 

At Ely Outfitting Company and Boundary Waters Guide Service, our goal is to provide you the best information and outfitting for your successful Boundary Waters canoe trip.  Best of luck with your star gazing!

"Paddle North: Canoeing the Boundary Waters-Quetico Wilderness" Wins Top Honors

Congratulations to photographer Layne Kennedy and author Greg Breining.  Their new book on our beautiful region received top honors in the General Nonfiction category at the NE Minnesota Book Awards last night.

We are exceptionally pleased to sponsor a Boundary Waters Photo Workshop with photographer Layne Kennedy on August 16-21, 2011.  Space is still available.  Click here for more information. 

In addition to his award-winning photography skills, Layne is a gifted teacher, kind person, and fun companion on trail.   Point and shoot newbies to professionals learn to take better photos while immersed in our special wilderness on the Photo Workshop. 

We have copies of "Paddle North" at Ely Outfitting Company in Ely, MN.  Feel free to stop in and browse through or buy a copy.  They make great gifts for people who love the Boundary Waters.

Photo Workshop Themes

The Photo Workshop dogsledding trip has wrapped up. We are lucky to have professional photographer Layne Kennedy leading these trips. He is a wonderfully dynamic and talented photographer and teacher.

The group learned a lot from Layne. One of Layne's main ideas for better photos is to ask yourself, "What am I trying to say with this photo?" Another of his suggestions is to think: expansive (overview), medium (mid-distance from subject), and detail (close-up) to create a more interesting set of photographic results.

Above is a photo Layne Kennedy (www.laynekennedy.com) took of a participant dog sledding through the wilderness. Notice the sense of motion he conveys with the blurring effect on the trees. Our dogs don't always travel as fast as is conveyed with the blurring effect - they average 3-4 mph. However, the group agreed that everyone, at some point during the trip, experienced a feeling that their dogs were moving as fast as is shown in the photo!

I start dogsleding with a new group of eight participants tomorrow. We have several distinct accents reflecting the distance some of them have traveled.

Night Sky in Motion

One of the fun experiments the photo workshop participants have done is try night sky shots. Last night Tom Sheley, of Columbus Ohio, captured this image. All the stars appear to be rotating around the North Star.

I really like how the stars have color in this photo. No one has altered the picture with Photoshop or a similar program. Instead, Layne says that the stars naturally have colors. He says the secret to capturing the star colors is to use a high ISO (or ASA) speed of 400.

Tom took this picture on the shores of Farm Lake, shooting toward the Boundary Waters. The absence of light pollution in the Boundary Waters makes this a perfect place for star gazing and star photography.