The annual Perseid meteor shower–the warm-up act for next week’s total solar eclipse–peaked this weekend, so Ted and I scheduled a date night to view it.  The best meteor shower we’ve seen was the Leonid shower in November 2012.  We took my convertible and a heavy blanket, put the top and the seats down, and spent an hour covered with the blanket, sky-watching from the Busch Wildlife Area.*  The Perseid has been described as the most popular meteor shower because it falls in August, when it’s actually nice to be outside in the evening.  Last night, the temperature was in the low 70s.  Perfect.

We scouted out some possible viewing areas away from city lights and settled on a country road north of us near the confluence of the Cuiver and Mississippi Rivers.  There was a convenient public boat ramp where we could park the car while we set up our lawn chairs on the levee and enjoyed the evening.

This year’s Perseid shower was supposed to be a big one, with 150-200 meteors per hour visible, including long tails.  Unfortunately, there was also a three-quarter moon, which seriously limited meteor visibility.  We arrived at our spot at about 8:30 pm, allowing us time to watch meteors before the 11:00 moonrise.  The most active meteors would be visible at 17 degrees above the horizon at 9:00 pm.  The area was dark enough to see the Milky Way (we can’t even see the entire Big Dipper from our house), but there was still enough ambient light along the horizon to limit our viewing from about 20-25 degrees upward.  As a result, we could see only the fringe of the meteor shower–far fewer than 150 per hour.  Still, we saw a meteor every few minutes and about a third of them had long tails that crossed most of the sky.

It was definitely worth a summer date night, sky-watching with the crickets and frogs chirping and croaking around us.

* When we were ready to leave the Leonid shower and started the car, the headlights came on and attracted the attention of a county policeman on patrol.  He drove into the lot where we were the only parked car, shined his police-issue flashlight in my face, and told me to roll down the window.  Blinded by the flashlight, it took me awhile to find the window button.  “What are you two doing here?” the policeman growled.  “Watching the meteor shower,” I replied.  There was an instant change in his demeanor to friendly and conversational.  “Really?  How many have you seen?” he asked.  We talked a few minutes and then went our separate ways.  In all the times I sat in a parked car with my boyfriend of the moment, we were never confronted by a policeman!!!  Adventures continue, even after retirement.  And with my husband of 43 years (at that time)!