Perseids under a thin moon

Perseids: 71 meteors in 3 h · limiting mag. 6.1

The forecast was clear from midnight, the moon was a thin waning crescent that would not rise until nearly three, and for once nothing at work needed me on Wednesday morning. So: the field behind the old dairy, a camping mat, a sleeping bag, a red torch and a clipboard.

I counted from 23:30 to 02:30 local time, facing roughly north-east with the radiant climbing in Perseus. The first hour was slow, about fifteen. The second and third were properly lively, with several short bursts of two or three meteors within a minute of each other, which is the bit of a shower nobody can explain to my satisfaction.

The fireball

At 01:52 a meteor came out of Cassiopeia, brighter than Venus, green at the head and orange in the tail, and left a train that stayed visible for about four seconds. I said something out loud to an empty field. It is the brightest I have seen in person, and I didn't have the camera pointed at it.

Total: 71 in three hours, limiting magnitude about 6.1 at the start, dropping to 5.8 once the moon came up.