The Perseids are coming The Perseids are coming

[Jimmy Snyder]

Strap on your helmets boys and girls, and keep the dinosaurs inside. The Perseid meteor shower will peak tomorrow night.

 

[Doc Al]

Glad you reminded me!

 

[turbo]

Unfortunately, Maine is looking to be stuck in clouds all weekend and into early next week, with scattered showers and T-storms. I have a couple of decent DSLRs with nice lenses, and I have been under a Perseid Curse ever since gearing up.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

I got up at 4:00 am but the sky was cloud covered. Same at 5:00. I'll try again tomorrow morning.

 

[lisab]

I didn't quite make it out of bed to see them , but my bf did, for 20 minutes or so. He said it was cool but not really spectacular.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I didn't quite make it out of bed to see them , but my bf did, for 20 minutes or so. He said it was cool but not really spectacular.

I took a look about 12:30 and didn't see much.

 

[Jimmy]

I saw a couple after about an hour of viewing- too much light pollution here though.

Observers with clear, dark skies can expect to see only about one per minute.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

I saw 3 in a 10 minute period. Light polution here is pretty bad too. I can remember as a child in 1963 I stayed overnight at summer camp. We slept outside during a meteor shower. It was in a rural area, it was a very clear night, and we were lying down with our faces to the sky. We talked about episodes of Twilight Zone. There were several meteors per minute all through the night until I fell asleep.

 

[GregJ]

I had a lot of light pollution and clouds were incoming fast, so I only managed to see a single one. Tried early in the morning too, but no luck.

Still, the single one was a fantastic sight to see :D

 

[Monique]

I stared up at the sky last night for about 30 minutes and only saw two. The most spectacular was something very bright slowly moving across the sky, not sure what it was.

 

[lisab]

I stared up at the sky last night for about 30 minutes and only saw two. The most spectacular was something very bright slowly moving across the sky, not sure what it was.

Maybe a satellite?

 

[Jimmy]

I was spoiled by the Leonid shower a decade ago. Went to a very dark site and saw one every few seconds.

 

[Monique]

Maybe a satellite?

I thought the same, but it was really bright: a lot brighter than any star in the sky (and I think satellites are quite dim objects?). I thought it could be an airplane flying at a relatively low altitude, but all the airplanes that I saw had blinking lights and this object was just a bright white spot moving from west to east.

 

[turbo]

I thought the same, but it was really bright: a lot brighter than any star in the sky (and I think satellites are quite dim objects?). I thought it could be an airplane flying at a relatively low altitude, but all the airplanes that I saw had blinking lights and this object was just a bright white spot moving from west to east.

ISS, maybe. It is quite large, with big solar arrays.

 

[Monique]

ISS, maybe. It is quite large, with big solar arrays.

I think you're right From the Beginner’s Guide to Seeing the International Space Station (ISS):

When the station passes over it will travel from a westerly direction, heading in an easterly direction. An average good pass can last about 5 minutes.

The ISS looks like an incredibly bright, fast-moving star and can be mistaken for an aircraft. However, the ISS has no flashing lights and it can be much brighter. It seemingly just glides across the sky. source

That definitely was a lot cooler than the Perseids, but with the light pollution that was also harder to miss than the shooting stars.