There Could Be A Good Show On Thursday And Friday

The Perseid meteor shower is predicted to generate up to 200 meteors per hour this year, on 11 and 12 August. The sky should be moonless, improving the chances of seeing a good show. Night owl that I am, assuming that the weather cooperates, I'll be spending some time outside those nights.

Of course, seeing a meteor on a night when a shower is expected isn't as cool as seeing one that's just a random event. I've had a couple of occasions in my life where I've been out alone on a dark night and just happened to turn my head in the right direction at the right time and caught a fleeting glimpse of a really brilliant meteor, and I've wondered on those occasions whether anyone else saw it. Of course, somebody else somewhere probably saw it, but the chance that I might just be the only one to have seen it, that it was my meteor, adds a little thrill to the experience.