Clouds are moving in from both the east and west so I'm going to have to stop. Judging from the appearance of the Salt Lake Valley light dome over the mountains to the east there was a good bit of haze all morning which may be why I could only see stars down to about magnitude 5 (M-31 was plainly visible but I think it's brighter than 5th). In fact by the time I started my 0405 session the haze to the SE had gotten so thick I could no longer see stars through it. Here's what I got during four 30 minute observing sessions this morning, 13 AUG 2007 (all times MDT): Perseids Sporadics Satellites 0105 to 0135 11 1 0205 to 0235 17 2 0305 to 0335 14 4 0405 to 0435 17 2 3 Totals 59 9 3 I'm guessing satellites appeared only during the final session because the terminator was not high enough to show satellites until then. There were a few additional "somethings" that I saw out of the corner of my eye. Probably meteors but I'm not sure so I did not count them. Of all the satellites seen only one fractured and sputtered. Most were at least as bright at Vega (mag 0) with the brightest around -2. My favorite was not a Perseid, rather one of the sporadics. While only about mag 0 it appeared at the zenith and cruised slowly to the east, lasting about 3 seconds and leaving a graceful train in its wake. This was nowhere near as rich as some of the Perseids I've seen (although better than some others) but it's been a pleasant morning up on the roof with very comfortable weather and a serenade provided by several frogs, uncounted crickets and the sound the water made as it left the pond out back and headed down stream. Clear skies! Patrick On 13 Aug 2007, at 03:07, Kim wrote:

From here in Sanpete I had a couple of pretty good hours of meteor watching. Beginning at 12:30 MST I made two one-hour counts. In the first hour I faced due east and observed 38 Perseids and 21 sporadic/non-shower meteors. In the next hour I faced directly toward the radiant and observed 54 Perseids and 14 others. About one-fourth of all meteors that I saw were 1st magnitude or brighter, and all of the bright shower members appeared blue-green. I forgot to take a reference chart with me to estimate limiting magnitude, but it was at least 6.8 or better, based on some stars in the square of Pegasus that I checked out at home. (There seemed to be a light haze as the sky wasn’t as clear as it had been earlier in the week.) The highlights were not shower members – I observed three very bright meteors, two of which were distinctly orangeish, one that occurred in Casseiopiea and Perseus (opposite direction to be a Perseid) and one in the southwestern sky. The third was in the west and had two distinct flashes before it burned up, no color.

All in all, the best Perseid display that I’ve seen in years. If I wasn’t so tired I’d go back out. Anyone else see much? (I suspect that Patrick just wasn’t patient enough.)

Kim