Perseid Meteor Shower

Tonight the sky was surprisingly clear. I say surprisingly because we are looking at Bonnie and Charlie in the neighborhood. But there is a patch of clear sky between them. The summer Milky Way was easy, almost bright! I used my binocular platform to observe for a few minutes before I started my counting. Numerous nebulas and clusters were easy to see. Remind me to show you the platform I made for my binoculars. They really help make using them a pleasure.

Anyway, I went out Clark Road a few miles east of I-75 to a church parking lot and set up. There were a few street-type lights and I parked my van in such a way that I could set up behind it, shielded from most of the lights.

I started looking and counting at midnight and lasted for about 40 minutes before the mosquitos grew too fierce. I saw 9 meteors in that 40 minutes: a couple very faint and 4 that were very bright, brighter than zero magnitude. The first was at 12:04 and its path was about 45-50 degrees long. The next was at 12:08 and was the brightest of the session and longest, spanning over 90 degrees. The last one was at 12:38 and was nearly as bright and long. A good show indeed. The number was a little less than I would have liked but catching a good meteor is always worth the time.