Perseid Fail
Picture Lake on Mt. Baker was our main destination for the day. The reflection of Mt. Shuksan in Picture Lake at sunset is one of the classic views in the Cascades. Tonight is nearly new moon, which is the perfect time to shoot the Milky Way arching from Mt. Shuksan over Picture Lake toward Mt. Baker between 10:30 and midnight. AND, tonight was the peak of the Perseid meteor shower between midnight and 3:00 a.m. The weather forecast for rain had been changed to clear skies. It had the potential to be an amazing night of shooting.
Mt. Baker is 2 hours northeast of Mt. Vernon and 4,000 feet higher in elevation. We hoped that would get us out of the wildfire smoke. We found later that the wildfire smoke was nearly continuous all the way to Wisconsin. I guess we shouldn't have been surprised that the entire area was shrouded in smoke. We shot a few images across Picture Lake with Mt. Shuksan in the background, but the smoke obscured Mt. Shuksan in most of the images.
For awhile, we could look straight up and see some stars and a few very bright meteors, but basically the night was a complete bust. I didn't shoot a single frame of the Milky Way or the Perseids. We finally gave up about 1:00 a.m. and snuck back into our campsite at 3:30.
We did, however, meet a very interesting group of women at Picture Lake. They were VERY serious astrophotographers. I mean they were prepared. They had lounge chairs, heated jackets, down comforters, coffee, snacks, reflective tape on their tripods to see them in the dark, and heat packs to put over the barrel of their lenses to cut down on condensation. They obviously go out shooting together a lot and were a hoot. At least we had some entertainment while we sat around hoping for something to clear.
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