Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Nope, its the Perseids!
No, I am not nuts. The Perseids is a meteor shower that has been around since the time of the Civil War. From Space.com...
"The Perseids are the result of stream of debris in space laid down by comet Swift-Tuttle, which orbits the Sun every 130 years and spends most of its time in the far reaches of the solar system. On each pass inward, bits of dust -- mostly the size of sand grains but sometimes as big as marbles -- boil from the comet's surface. When Earth passes through the debris each August, the bits are vaporized in the atmosphere. "
Around 1 am, I woke Zach up and told him to get dressed. We hopped in the van and drove to an area away from the lights of the city and homes in the area. It was pretty dark and provided an excellent arena for viewing this spectacular show. We were fortunate that there was not a cloud in the sky. Tossing the blanket on the pavement, we lay down and watched.
There weren't as many meteors as we had hoped, but in the space of 30 minutes we spotted at least ten of them. A couple were moving relatively slow and were very bright. One of them dragged a tail of fire behind it, leaving both of us "ooh-ing" and "ah-ing".
It wasn't as good as the Leonids display of last year, but it was worth seeing.
It's Del.icio.us!
Furl It!
