My first Perseid meteor shower...

[mozo]

I was nineteen. That was over twenty-five years ago now.

At that time I was more of a star gazer than an astronomical enthusiast. Today I hover between those as time permits, but still an amateur at best.

My family and I were building a vacation home between two lakes in La Grange, California. The only roof on the house was only at the plywood level that night.

On this particular summer weekend some of my friends had come out to help. Later that night one of my friends and I decided to climb up on the roof to gaze at the dark sky night. Being out in the middle of nowhere, as we all know, is the best for star gazing. So many stars...

We started to see shooting stars. Even then I knew they weren't actually stars, but I still like the phrase. Then we would see another, then another, then a few at a time. They just kept coming and coming. We had no idea that there was a meteor shower that night and I had never heard of the Perseid meteor shower before this event.

Then... I saw a flash to my left on the horizon... to this day, I have never seen another shooting star of this brilliance and magnitude... it just kept going, getting brighter as it crossed our mid-sky view... the tail seemed to touch the horizon it came from... and it didn't stop shining until it reached the horizon to our right. Now, perhaps horizon to horizon is a slightly over-reaching statement, but I do know that it started far enough to our left and finished far enough to our right, that I had to turn my head to follow it.

We were just in awe at what we had just witnessed and saw nothing close to it that night. And I have never seen anything like it since.

I found out about the Perseid meteor shower soon after this experience and I try to get back to the country house to view it whenever possible.

This experience is a big reason why I keep looking at the skies to this day.

[russ]

That sounds an amazing experience. The best Persied display i've seen was 1987 from Astrocamp in Ashdown Forest near East Grinstead. There was an almighty fireball in the early hours that lit the place up.

[Teddy]

Nice story . Sounds like the perfect way to view the shower