Meteors and Fireballs!

The Perdeids meteor shower peaks tonight, so, just after dusk gather the lawn chairs and head out for the yearly show. 80 to 100 meteors per hour is the expected peak for any year, but this year we have an added treat. A really interesting time will be about 4am when we slam through a really dense cloud at 150,000 km per hr bringing a spectacular burst of about 200 shooting stars per hour. The shooting stars we see are from a cloud of dust sized particles, a wonderful display from something so small. The dense cloud will also bring fireballs, baseball to basketball sized space rocks entering the atmosphere that can even leave a smoke trail in the clear night sky.
Last night about 2:30am looking out the window I saw a fireball that lasted for about 5 seconds even though the moon was bright enough to walk around the pond without a flashlight. When the moon rises, turn your back to it to block the effect and get ready for a really great night.
Lately it has been cloudy, hazy, humid, and so just in case you do not have a clear view to see the meteor showers, how about listening to them? The USAF Space Surveillance Radar scans the Texas skies, yes, from Roswell, and if you want to LISTEN just click this link.
Whether you watch or listen, tonight will be impressive.