The Perseid meteor shower peaks this weekend, without the moon up during the best viewing. I have a pretty good night sky at my house, so I don’t have to make a trip to see it. I’ll be dragging my seven-year-old out to the porch in the middle of the night; hopefully we’ll see some fire.
I’ll never forget when my dad brought me and my brother out to a park in the Columbia River Gorge when I was about ten (probably 1988, when it was a new moon and on a weekend). Once it got going there was never more than a few seconds between meteors. Truly spectacular.
Anyone else planning on viewing this year? Any stories of seeing showers in the past, or good spots to look up?
Maybe in 2026 (new moon) I’ll take a trip to Oregon’s High Desert where it’s “see the Milky Way” dark.
When I lived in San Diego I drove out to the southern area of Anza Borrego State Park for meteor showers. My usual spot was along South Carrizo Creek Road. Great viewing out there, and it was close enough that on weeknights I could get up at 5AM and make it back in time to grab a shower and get to work by 7:30.
We’re planning on getting up very early Monday morning (Sunday night) and driving about a hour putting us in a pretty good spot equidiatant between two light pollution sources but giving us a fairly dark sky.
It’s an area where I’ve had good luck in the past and requires very little effort for me to get there.
Best sighting I ever had was out there once when we were lucky enough to see something burn up bright enough to make me think it was a flare.
And today I learned a neumonic for the correct terminology for “meteoroid” (small body in space, outside the atmosphere), “meteor” (streak of light produced by said body burning up in atmosphere), and “meteorite” (piece of meteoroid remaining after it strikes the ground). To wit: “In the void, meteoroid. On the site, meteorite. Neither/Nor: meteor.”
