A PERSEID METEOR SHOWERS Resort Package In The Acclaimed Anza-Borrego Desert Of Northeastern San Diego County
Enjoy the August 11,12 Perseid Meteor Showers at Four Star Resort in the Anza-Borrego Desert, which USA Today selected as one of America’s “Top 10 Stargazing Communities in San Diego’s" because artificial light is at a minimum, according to a July 31, 2003 article.
Anza-Borrego Desert, Calif. (PRWEB) July 30, 2005 -- On the nights of
Thursday, August 11 and Friday, August 12, 2005 at La Casa del Zorro Desert
Resort in the Anza-Borrego Desert of northeastern San Diego County, noted
astronomer Dennis Mammana will lead a seminar and viewing focused on the annual
Perseid Meteor Showers.
This astronomy package is $299 per night –each
night - and includes a deluxe room, the seminar, use of several state-of-the-art
telescopes under the direction of a team of experts and three $25 credits – one
each for dining, day-spa/salon, and golf/tennis/archery (and more). Tax and
gratuities are not included.
USA Today selected the Anza-Borrego Desert
as one of America’s “Top 10 Stargazing Communities in San Diego’s" because
artificial light is at a minimum, according to a July 31, 2003
article.
Each night, the "Rain of Fire!" seminar is from 7:30 p.m. to
9:00 p.m. It will include a lecture, visuals and a question and answer session.
From 9:00 p.m. until 11:00 p.m. and again from 2:00 a.m. until 5:00 a.m. will be
telescope observing of the legendary Perseid Meteor Showers, the very event that
motivated Steven Spielberg to produce the recently-released “War of the Worlds”
and two of Spielberg's most definitive movies: 1977's Close Encounters of the
Third Kind and 1982's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.
“I first became aware
of the sky when my father pointed out the Perseid meteor shower(s) to me when I
was about 6 years old ….”, Spielberg told the USA Today in a June 23, 2005
article.
What captured the famous movie producer’s attention were the
celestial fireworks that occur annually in mid-August, when the Earth passes
near the orbit of Comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle. The Perseid shower is one of two
yearly showers with meteor rates high enough to capture the attention of even
the most casual skywatcher. (The other one is December's Geminids.) In part, the
Perseid stand out because Swift-Tuttle is a large comet — its nucleus is about
10 miles (16 kilometers) across. The meteors all seem to radiate from a point in
the constellation of Perseus, which is well up in the northeast sky during the
evening, and high in the east by dawn.
On August 11, the Perseid meteor
shower will probably yield the highest numbers, perhaps increasing to as many as
one Perseid every couple of minutes, towards dawn of the 12th. On the 11th, the
crescent Moon will be setting in the middle of the evening, so it will do little
to spoil the show. The night of the 12th/morning of the 13th will also offer a
good show - but not the peak show of the previous night. (As reported by Bill
Cooke on astronomy.com)
Participants who wish to try their hand at sky
photography are encouraged to bring a film or digital camera with remote
control, normal or wide-angle lens, a tripod and ISO-200 or -400 color films.
Mammana, who earned an M.S. in astronomy from Vanderbilt University and has
become internationally known as a sky photographer, will offer tips on capturing
the celestial panorama. Mammana has held positions at the Smithsonian's National
Air & Space Museum, the University of Arizona’s Flandrau Planetarium, the
Reuben H. Fleet Science Center, as well as authoring six books on astronomy,
hundreds of popular magazine and encyclopedia articles and, since 1992, has
written Stargazers for Copley News Service, the only nationally syndicated
weekly newspaper column on astronomy.
Completely surrounded by the
acclaimed Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, La Casa del Zorro is located
approximately 90 miles northeast of downtown San Diego, about 80 miles south of
Palm Springs and under 180 miles from downtown Los Angeles.
About La Casa
del Zorro, National Geographic Adventure Magazine reported: “Here’s evidence
that adventure lodges don’t need to be rustic.” Zagat ranked La Casa del Zorro
as “extraordinary to perfection.” Wine Spectator magazine presented its Award of
Excellence to La Casa del Zorro in honor of the resort’s extraordinary
collection of over 4,000 bottles of wine from around the world. Even the service
is “impeccable,” according to The New York Times, which also reported that the
Anza-Borrego desert offers “…the rewards and complexity of a Zen Garden.” The
Los Angeles Times calls Anza-Borrego “the real desert.”
For more
information, contact the resort at (800) 824-1884.
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/7/prweb266964.htm