Monday, August 13, 2007

The Perseids

Yesterday, I looked for the "falling stars" I talked about in the previous post. I saw a couple of bright ones around 10:30pm, one of them through binoculars. That one did not seem to be part of the Perseids; it came from a different direction. However, it was quite bright, and I could see it break up into several smaller pieces just as it finished. That happens when the heat buildup inside gets high enough to explode the original meteor.

Unfortunately, a broken cloud cover drifted in around 10:45pm, so I probably missed more of the Perseids. I went into the house at that time. Though I woke up a couple of times during the night and the sky had cleared again, I didn't see any more Perseids during the few minutes I looked out the Window at those times.

Perhaps other people had more luck. According to predictions, there should have been a fair number visible this year.