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Shooting Stars

Apparently, Luke does not trust me.  He wanted me to wake him up at 1 this morning to watch the Perseid meteor shower, but as he was telling me to "make sure to wake me up," he realized that he has his own alarm clock.  He set it and was ready to go.  I asked the girls if they wanted to be woken up and they declined.

He may have had reason to not believe that I would wake him up.  We have tried to wake Luke up in the middle of the night for other astronomical events but he is notoriously difficult to wake up.  I recall shaking and yelling, only to have him roll over and groan.  Last night I was prepared to go into his room to turn off his alarm when he didn't wake up this morning, but it turned out not to be a problem---he was bright eyed and bushy tailed after only about 30 seconds of alarm. (Note: the alarm woke me up without any trouble, even from the other room.)

We went out to the darker end of the street and lay down in the damp grass.  We saw maybe 5-10 meteors in the half hour we were out there.  Not as many as we might have seen in a darker place: there is a lot of light pollution where we are so that's not surprising.  I am thinking (only thinking) about asking the neighbors to turn off their outdoor lights tonight.

Just as we were about to go in, a huge, bright meteor crossed the sky, leaving a visible thick tail.  It was clearly the best one of the night.  I am thankful for our atmosphere, and thankful for the comet that leaves its debris in the earth's path.  Meteor showers are awesome.

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