I settled back for an hour of dedicated watching last night from 2-3 am in my backyard. Observed Perseids came at the rate of one every 5-7 minutes which is phenomenol for a day ahead of the peak; I had ten total for the hour. There were 2 @ mag. 2, most at about mag. 4-5. The brightest ones produced streaks of 10-15 degrees, the dimmer ones considerably shorter. One fairly bright one shot right down between Mars and the Pleiades, really cool. I'm sure if I could have seen the entire sky at once, my total would have been higher. Some surely got away unnoticed. I was also impressed by the number of sporadics noted- I saw seven in that period which is far higher than my usual random backyard rate. Seventeen total meteors in an hour was a good show for a valley location. One sporadic was a "reverse Perseid". It traveled a line almost directly toward the radiant, an amusing surprise. I've got to get up at 4 am Monday morning so I doubt that I'll do much watching tonight, good luck to all who go for it.