Reggae on the Mountain attracts amazing musicians from around the world, but this one-of-a-kind music festival remains homegrown and deeply rooted in the Topanga community, and its unique magic has never been more welcome. In this time of fears and anxiety, this music has the power to bring people together with joy and in a spirit of love. www.reggaeonthemountain.com/ Cover design by Urs Baur.
Eight-year-old Lamar McGlothurn died on July 9, following blunt force injuries caused by a falling tree limb at King Gillette Ranch in Calabasas. An 11-year-old girl sustained serious injuries and was airlifted from the site. Three other people, including a five-year-old boy, were also injured. The victims of the accident were participating in a popular nature summer camp. The tree, an ancient valley oak, has stood in that location since long before the road or the ranch was built.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department described the tree limb as a 25-30 foot branch. The incident occurred at the end of the day. The victims were gathered in the shade under the tree. The incident report states that they heard cracking, and seconds later, the branch came down on top of them.
That the branch should fall at the moment when people were underneath it and that a child died as the result is a terrible tragedy. It’s a reminder that death is only ever a step away for all of us. The shadow is there even in the safety of a summer camp, in a beautiful park, surrounded by friends and laughter. Our hearts go out to the family who experienced this devastating loss, to everyone who was injured and to the children who witnessed this tragedy unfold. King Gillette Ranch Visitor Center is closed until further notice.
While much of the country is roasting or struggling with floods, coastal Southern California remains wrapped in cool, late night and early morning fog, which keeps the nighttime temperatures down and helps Topangans sleep comfortably.
The height of summer can be something of an endurance exercise here in the Santa Monica Mountains, with hot weather bringing crowds to trailheads, beaches, and canyon roads. Quiet weather remains in the forecast for another week, but the hot weather will be here soon enough.
If the marine layer cooperates, this is a good time of year to look for shooting stars. On the night of July 28, the Delta Aquarids Meteor Shower peaks. Earth is already passing through the debris cloud left by comets Marsden and Kracht, and meteors caused by that passage can be visible any night this week, but the best time to look will be the predawn hours on the morning of July 29. As the Delta Aquarids wane, the Perseids arrive. This meteor shower peaks on the night of August 11-12, which means it will be dimmed by the waning full moon on the ninth, but this meteor shower is always worth watching for, even when conditions aren’t ideal. It’s known for producing bright shooting stars—bits of dust from the comet Swift-Tuttle that superheat and burn up as they skim across Earth’s atmosphere. It takes a long time for Earth to fully transit the comet debris fields, which means the odds of catching a shooting star are higher than usual all the way until the end of August. Don’t forget to make a wish.
Comets like Temple Tuttle, Marsden, and Kracht are travelers that pass through Earth’s orbit on highly elliptical paths around the sun, but they are part of our solar system. At the start of July, astronomers detected what appears to be an interstellar object transiting our Solar System. 3I/ATLAS is only the third interstellar voyager humans have detected and it is thought to have originated far from our quadrant of the Milky Way. It may be as much as two billion years older than our sun, an unimaginably ancient traveler that brings with it the tantalizing theory that objects like this may bring with them the seeds of life—water ice and dust that may contain organic elements and compounds.
3I/ATLAS is larger than our previous interstellar visitors 1I/’Oumuamua (2017) and 2I/Borisov (2019). Astronomers are racing to use some of Earth’s biggest and most powerful telescopes to learn all they can about this extraordinary visitor before it leaves this system, headed out into the unknown. Amateur astronomers may also get a look at this visitor later this year, as it moves closer. 3I/ATLAS is not expected to be bright enough to see with the naked eye, but odds are good that it could be visible with the help of even an inexpensive telescope. This is a chance to see something incredibly ancient and completely awe inspiring, a true interstellar traveler. The universe is an amazing place.
Stay safe, be well.
