Camping Under Shooting Stars

Everyone should try this!  During a heatwave, a good time to be outside is at night.   After skulking in a hot house most of the day, I decided on a whim that it might be cooler to sleep outside.   It was much better than I expected.

I decided while watching the News at Ten.  It took five minutes to assemble the necessary, and another five to set up a sleeping bag in the back garden under the stars.  It's so dry that no bivi bag or other covering is needed.  At first I thought I wouldn't need a sleeping bag, but you radiate heat away to the sky, which is very cold, and it soon became necessary to get into a thin sleeping bag.

Leave No Trace

I lay in my back garden watching stars in the cool air, full of the scent of honeysuckle.   It was wonderful. The full moon was hidden behind the house, so the sky was fairly dark, for London.  Quite a few aeroplanes, most of them high up and inaudible.   Several 'stars' were moving fast across the sky - satellites, most going east-west but some going north-south as well.  And then there were shooting stars.   It's the Perseid meteor shower at the moment, meaning that Earth is travelling through the tail of a comet, I think.   Bits of dust hit the atmosphere and burn up in a streak.   In an hour or so I probably saw a dozen of them.   I've tried to spot meteor showers before, but you have to wait quite a long time, so lying down looking upwards makes it much easier.  

The stars kept me fascinated and awake for a while.  I also re-discovered the Google Sky Map app, which is wonderful in that situation - showing you and naming what you're pointing the phone at.  It told me that the very bright star was Jupiter, and that Neptune (invisible) was close to it.  I spotted a constellation or two.  In the morning it also helped identify Mars, as all the stars had shifted round somehow in the night.   A great way to spend a night in a heatwave.