So, did you heed my advice? Did you set aside Sunday evening to head out with friends and family to enjoy the Perseid meteor shower. Here in Vancouver, we had cloudy skies into the evening. But on a hunch, I set my alarm for 4 am, when the shower was at its height. What a treat.
My kids were disappointed that the sky was clouded over, and we wouldn’t be able to see the meteors Sunday evening. But incredibly, the sky cleared up over night, and it was perfectly clear when I checked outside at 4 am. So, I woke up the kids and we laid out on the back deck and watched for meteors as the skies started to brighten up. I was able to see quite a few before the rising Sun started to brighten the skies too much. All in all, it was great to see.
I’m really looking forward to the next big event: the total lunar eclipse on August 28, 2007. I can’t stress it enough. If you live in the Western North America, the Pacific, or Asia please try and make an event of this eclipse. It’s going to be great.
The European Space Agency has an interesting article about some of the science that happened during the meteor shower, as well as some tests of new equipment that could eventually be used to observer meteors… from space.
Source: ESA News Release