Perseid Meteors...

I got up extra early this morning (about 3 am) so I could go out and watch the Perseid meteors, which peaked tonight.  They put on quite a show!  In 20 minutes I saw 27 meteors.  Most of them were the typical streak of light about as bright as a star, but four of them were much bigger and brighter than any star.  One of these came more-or-less straight toward me, making only a short streak just to the north of the Pleiades.  Another of them went straight overhead, moving toward the southwest – and making a visible smoke trail that persisted for a minute or so.

Awesome!

Meteors and Aurorae Over Iceland...

Via APOD, of course.  Full resolution JPG.

Orionid Meteor Shower Peaks Tonight...

Get thyself out to watch it.  This particular meteor shower is created by the remnants and debris from Halley's comet.  On the west coast, 3 to 5 am is the best time to see it...

Meteor...from the ISS...

Via Paul H., an astronaut on board the ISS captured this image of a Perseid meteor.

Wow!

Via APOD, this video of a spectacular meteor from 1992:

Geminids...

I posted in some detail about the Geminids yesterday.  This morning the dogs and I watched them for about 10 minutes, and saw about 40 meteors.  That works out to a rate of about 240/hour, nowhere near some of the predictions – but it was still a great display.  Because Gemini is so high in the sky right now, the meteors were visible at all points of the compass, and looked like they were headed straight down.  Of the meteors I saw, two were fairly large and long-lived, one in particular to the southwest of me that disappeared below the horizon still glowing brightly...

A Perseid Sort of Morning...

My start this morning was a half-hour or so later than usual, so I didn't get outside with the dogs until nearly 4 am.  By that late hour, my old friend Orion was well up in the eastern sky, and the Milky Way was tilted over toward the northwest.  I knew that tonight was the most intense night of this year's Perseid meteor shower, so I kept a sharp eye out – and was amply rewarded.  In the course of a 10 minute walk, I saw six bright meteor trails.  All but one moved from nearly straight up moving down to just north of due west.  The outlier moved from overhead to the southeast, passing right by bright Jupiter.

When the dogs and I got nearly to the end of our driveway, Race (our border collie) suddenly went on full alert: hackles raised, aggressive stance aimed back toward the house, and subterranean rumbles.  Then it was on to the full alarm bark – awesomely loud at 4 am.  I thought at first that some large animal was out and about, and that somehow Race (and not the field spaniels) was the first to notice.  But it turned out to be Debbie, out in the yard with a flashlight.  The field spaniels all seemed to know that it was her and it was ok, but Race was quite alarmed.  Then Debbie, laughing, made some friendly noises so he could recognize her, and then Race practically yanked me off my feet trying to go see her...