Stay up for the peak of a meteor shower and count them
“The first hour is cold and empty and you'll feel you've wasted the night. Then they start, and you'll lose track of the count you came to keep.”
The Recipe
- Find the next major meteor shower and the night it peaks; the Perseids in August and the Geminids in December are the reliable ones.
- In the days before, work out the darkest sky you can reach and get safely back from, out of the city and away from the last streetlights.
- Tell someone where you're going, and go after midnight, when the sky has turned into the meteors and the rate climbs.
- Take far more warmth than you think, something to lie back on, and a red light so you don't wreck your night vision.
- Lie back, give your eyes a full twenty minutes to adapt, and don't look at a screen once it's dark.
- Watch the whole sky rather than one patch, and start a tally of how many you see in an hour.
- Stay through the peak in the small hours, when they come fastest.
- Walk out at first light, and hold on to the count.
Something's afoot
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