Wednesday night was out in desert at Borrego Springs, the second "Dark City" certified in the USA. At about 10pm saw a burst of meteors, 8-10 I'd say, in the first 5-6 minutes. Then nothing for some 20 min. However, saw 2 much bigger/brighter than all the rest one of which was a bright red: red tail and distinctive red head. Went across from left to right at nearly flat angle while I was facing northeast.
Came back around 10:30 but too early and only saw occasional small ones for next 20 min or so. Then the waning moon rose and managed to light up the low desert atmosphere washing out the dark black background and most faint stars and partially obscuring the smaller/dimmer meteors. It had been 115 in the afternoon and was still around 83 at 10:30pm.
Folks said around 1am there were really high quantity of meteors but without dark background not as impressive.
When I lived in the Sacto area up in foothills near Grass Valley, our running group used to go camping for the Perseids up at Saddlebag Lake and campground just east of Tioga Pass and about mile or more north of the paved road. Elevation, 10,100 ft While waiting for the meteors to start we easily watched the polar orbiting satellites and the space shuttle and/or space station orbiting. That was spectacular. Chilly nights typically down around 45-60 deg. in hottest part of summer.
But well worth the trip to Borrego Springs this year.
