<p>My lab went up to Maine last weekend on a retreat, and I managed to convince some of the other students to sit outside with me and watch the meteor shower. We were there last Wednesday, well before the peak, but we still saw quite a few.</p>
<p>For all the skywatchers, here is a link to the times space shuttle sightings are possible during the next week or so. We were able to see one a few years ago and it was very different from anything else we had ever seen in the sky, so fast and smooth.
<a href=“http://spaceflight1.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/cities/skywatch.cgi?country=United+States[/url]”>http://spaceflight1.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/cities/skywatch.cgi?country=United+States</a></p>
<p>awesome link! THANKS A LOT! :)</p>
<p>I live in a very rural area and the night sky is amazing. The Milky Way is always clearly visible (when not cloudy of course!). It’s a family tradition to watch the Perseids. Both Saturday and Sunday nights, we saw a meteor about every 3-4 minutes or so - mostly short ones but a few with very long tails. =)</p>
<p>Great article on light pollution in this week’s New Yorker, but unfortunately I can’t provide a link; it doesn’t seem to be posted on line.</p>
<p>So, got up at 5:00 this a.m. and saw three. And didn’t see any possums. SCORE!</p>
<p>Here in the West one of the best places to watch August meteor showers is Baker, Nevada, at the gateway to Great Basin National Park. Big city lights are hundreds of miles away and the sky is absolutely magnificent, almost scary. There is astrological society affiliated with NP service, people come from all over to watch this spectacular sky. The peak was last Sunday, August 12, just after midnight.</p>
<p>Son and a friend sat out on a boat on a lake last night here in NC from about 11pm till 1am. Said it was great, they saw many and some with long tails. He thought it was great and had to wake me up at 1 to tell me.</p>
<p>Ah. I have such a memory of being at the tail end of 14, and vacationing with my family up in the high Sierras during this week in August, and a boy who worked at the place we were staying, and a night.</p>
<p>An entry from Alumother’s teen journal that I remember to this day.</p>
<p>“The stars looked like salt spilled across a table”.</p>
<p>Well, when you are 14, what do you know about poetry that doesn’t involve someone’s blue or brown or hazel eyes, right? Let’s just say I did see a lot of stars that night. In fact, at least 10 or 12 in the sky. I could almost hear the sound of them zeeping across the sky, you know? Zeep! Zeeeep! Zeeeep.</p>
<p>I’m convinced – next Aug. I need to get out of town!</p>
<p>Alumother – that’s beautiful. Are you a writer?</p>
<p>I saw a spectacular meteor display at 5 AM in my backyard about five or six years ago which must have been one of the November Leonid meteor showers. There were hundreds of them -it was really breathtaking.</p>
<p>mstee - yeah I’d love to try, thanks. But there’s that earning a living thing:). Maybe in my next life. And besides, I think I already wrote my best stuff as a teenager. Now I write press releases. And website copy. And white papers under someone else’s name. Pretty good press releases. But not known for the poetic voice. Hehe.</p>
<p>roshke - your backyard sounds lovely:)…</p>
<p>alumother - Thanks! And your evening sounded… memorable!!</p>