Actually, our dreaded curse of the Perseid Meteor Shower was already broken last year, when we had some spectacular good luck and were able to see quite a few meteors. But is the lucky streak going to hold this year? We were already able to see a few isolated ones recently and hopefully the weather is going to cooperate on the nights of August 10 to 13 – but the forecast doesn’t look good for our location. The best chance to see the Perseids should be on the 12th, but it is also possible that meteors can be seen on the previous and following nights.

If you want to know more about the Perseids, Universe Today has a really good Observer’s Guide written by David Dickinson and Fraser Cain has made a great short explainer video about meteors in general. In short, if you have a reasonably clear view of the sky to the east and northeast, you are all set to go! I hope that I can catch some this year since I’ve finally got a camera which can do really long exposure times – but I think we’re really out of luck if the weather keeps being so unstable. But still, fingers crossed!

[Update 12 August: Yesterday was a total wash-out – it was absolutely bucketing down. Tonight, at least at the moment (23:30), the clouds are occasionally allowing a brief look at the stars, and I at least saw one little meteor dashing right through Cassiopeia – and I was only looking out of the window!]