The Perseids! The Perseids are here; they snuck up on me. Go outside tonight and/or tomorrow night, if your sky is dark and clear enough, and look for many meteors! Although, apparently the peak times are around 4 am, so. Still, the earth-grazers happen earlier, around 9-ish; if you're in a dark enough spot you'll notice that earth-grazers' long tails seem to glow in colors sometimes (at least, my eyes saw colors, notably green and orange hints, during the Leonid expedition of 2001).

I have a soft spot for the Perseids because they were usually the ones we saw on family vacations. The parents would wake us kids up at the opportune time and we'd go outside the RV and huddle in sleeping bags on cots, cold (deserts and mountains are cold at night even in August) and sometimes wishing for slo-mo and instant replay capabilities, but still happy.

copyright 2003 carrie lynn king.