The Perseid meteor shower

[Tropo-Bob (Bob)]

This was an interesting event.

I was up at 4.30 and decided on settling down into the carport and making myself comfortable in conditions that Cairns locals consider cold. For over 15 minutes, nothing happened. Then a beauty, about Mag -2, appeared below the Hyades and traveled swiftly into Orion. There was something almost 3D about the tail.

Another 10 mins passed before I saw a glimpse of a bright one (-1), but it was low and disappeared behind some trees. Another 5 minutes passed and I saw a faint one, about Mag 4. It went quite for 10 minutes or more.

Then it happened! A magnificent meteor appeared around the Hyades, followed by another about 3 seconds later. Ten seconds passed, then a third and then an encore about 15 seconds later traveled a huge distance (45+ degrees) before disappearing behind my carport ceiling. They were all bright. Interestingly, they all had narrow, twin tails or rather tails that looked hollow. The last one seemed to have sparkles within the hollow region.

I moved into more open ground, but only saw one more magnificent meteor in the next 30 minutes. It was about mag -3 and with its twin tail, traveled some 50 degrees across the sky.

I could see the sky brightening, so I gave it away. I was outside for 80 minutes and saw 11 meteors. However, with 4 magnificent meteors occurring within a minute, it was a satisfying, or perhaps I should say, an awesome experience.