My start this morning was a half-hour or so later than usual, so I didn't get outside with the dogs until nearly 4 am. By that late hour, my old friend Orion was well up in the eastern sky, and the Milky Way was tilted over toward the northwest. I knew that tonight was the most intense night of this year's Perseid meteor shower, so I kept a sharp eye out – and was amply rewarded. In the course of a 10 minute walk, I saw six bright meteor trails. All but one moved from nearly straight up moving down to just north of due west. The outlier moved from overhead to the southeast, passing right by bright Jupiter.
When the dogs and I got nearly to the end of our driveway, Race (our border collie) suddenly went on full alert: hackles raised, aggressive stance aimed back toward the house, and subterranean rumbles. Then it was on to the full alarm bark – awesomely loud at 4 am. I thought at first that some large animal was out and about, and that somehow Race (and not the field spaniels) was the first to notice. But it turned out to be Debbie, out in the yard with a flashlight. The field spaniels all seemed to know that it was her and it was ok, but Race was quite alarmed. Then Debbie, laughing, made some friendly noises so he could recognize her, and then Race practically yanked me off my feet trying to go see her...
No comments:
Post a Comment