Tonight and tomorrow will be the last chance to catch glimpses of the annual Perseid Meteor Showers that have been making their way across the Northern Hemisphere for the past five or so days.
The best viewing window is typically just before dawn, but for our area optimal time might be this evening, from around 8:30 to midnight, before the clouds once again — like last night — make viewing difficult.
Experts recommend laying face up in a wide open field without nearby trees and away from most artificial light, which may be difficult to come by in our densely populated, heavily treed suburbs. But if you’re lucky, you could see as many as 50 streaking meteors per hour.
Brian Sargent, a Montclair dad on a trip to the more open air state of Minnesota, got lucky, and blogged about it.
Photo: Wikipedia
Suggest you don’t watch with an open bottle of wine! (see Hold on Sidewalk Tables After Weekend Police Name-Taking?)
Along with the “streaking” silhouettes of the Jersey mosquito. Surround yourself with citronella tonight.
I make a point to see this meteor shower any year that I could go on a weekend. I’d wake up before dawn and drive down 78 West until you get to the rest area/scenic look out in Bernards Township. No light pollution… just stars. It helps to have a long hood on your car too!