Here’s a pre-peak Perseids watch for the morning of August 11 2016 at Bootland Farm.   Sky had average transparency but with some cirrus clouds covering the north.  It was a warm night at +20C and very humid but without any dew. I was excited when I got out of the car there, as a nice mag -2 Perseid shot to the north!  It was a surprisingly noisy night with a lot of crickets all over the place 🙂

I observed for two hours, from 3:30-4:32am and I saw 68 meteors.  The Perseids were going on strong in the first hour with 35 seen, but for some strange reason, the rates dropped to only 16 in second hour.  I can’t really explain why that occurred as I was fully awake.  There seemed to be more very faint meteors in the second hour too.

The best meteor was a Perseid at 3:08am that shot over 30 degrees and flared to mag -3, leaving behind a 4 sec persistent train!

At 3:03am, a sporadic and anthelion appeared exactly at once and nearly crossed paths.

Another highlight at 3:26am : a highly foreshortened blue-green Perseid near the radiant that flared to mag -2, and left a 2 sec train.

Unfortunately, the peak night August 11/12 of the Perseids was a washout.  I made an effort to chase “sucker holes” to the east of the city, and then to the south-west.  The best I managed was seeing a pair of meteors through a very small brief opening.  The following night August 12/13, Shane Finnigan and I drove to the Plevna and Nirvana sites to try and catch an opening between clouds, but we got caught in a heavy rain as we waited in the parking lot at Plevna.  At Nirvana, the sky did clear up briefly so we could observe casually for a while and saw a few meteors before the clouds returned.  Then we called it quits and came back home.

August 10/11 2016, 06:30-08:32 UT (02:30-04:32 EDT)
Location: Bootland Farm (Stewartville), Ontario, Canada
(Long: -76 deg 29′; Lat: 45 deg 23′)

Observed showers:
kappa Cygnids (KCG) –  18:20 (275) +55
alpha Capricornids –  20:44 (311) -08
Anthelion (ANT) –  21:48 (327) -13
North delta Aquariids (NDA) – 22:52 (343) -00
South delta Aquariids (SDA) – 23:16 (349) -14
Piscis Austrinids (PAU) – 23:20 (350) -28
Perseids (PER) – 02:44 (041) +56
eta Eridanids (ERI) – 02:52 (043) -12
beta Perseids (BPE) – 02:57 (044) +38

06:30-07:30 UT (02:30-03:30 EDT); clear; 3/5 trans (thin cirrus clouds over the north); F 1.00; LM 6.40; facing SE60 deg; teff 1.00 hr
PER: thirty-five: -3; -2; 0(3); +1(4); +2(8); +3(8); +4(4); +5(6)
SDA: three: +2; +4; +5
KCG: two: +1; +5
ANT: two: +4; +5
Sporadics: five: +1(2); +2; +3; +4
Total meteors: Forty-seven

07:30-08:32 UT (03:30-04:32 EDT); clear; 3/5 trans (thin cirrus clouds over the north); F 1.00; LM 6.38; facing SE50 deg; teff 1.01 hr
PER: Sixteen: 0; +2; +3(3); +4(3); +5(8)
SDA: one: +1
Sporadics: four: +2; +3; +4; +5
Total meteors: Twenty-one

Clear skies,

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario