Keep an eye out for the peak of the Perseid meteor shower on 13 August! (That's this coming Monday.) It's supposed to be a fairly good show this time of the year, especially since the new moon will make for darker skies.
Even if viewing from Singapore or other city lights, you should still be able to see something as the Perseid meteors tend to be bright and might produce the occasional fireball (and where there're fireballs, there're usually trails, which are spectacular to watch). Of course, better viewing can be done further from bright lights - some places I went and suggest going to for darker skies:
- the seaside (provided you don't do something dumb like choose a spot facing Pulau Brani or other brightly lit islands)
- darker, more remote places like Boon Lay or the reservoirs
- Pulau Ubin or other islands
The 'traditional' peak of the meteor shower is around 5h - 7h UT (Universal Time), which works out to be around 1pm - 3pm Singapore time. Yes, I know, problem there. But there's supposed to be a secondary peak at around 11pm (15h UT) Singapore time that night (of 13 August), so that should suit viewers in Asia and Australia.
Seems that my postponed departure has given me this bonus too! Originally I would've missed seeing the Perseids over here in Santa Cruz where the skies are much darker than Singapore. The skies here aren't the darkest of dark, but enough for me to see the haze of the Milky Way, though people who don't know what they're looking at would mistake it for normal atmospheric haze.
I love sitting out on clear nights (nights tend to be foggy along this coast) and just have fun identifying the constellations, planets, objects, asterisms and such, and sometimes just marvel at it all - I was rewarded with eight bright meteor sightings the other night. Looking up at the night sky always makes me sublimely happy. Sometimes it's awe, making me feel infinitely small, like a mouse looking up in a great hall of giants. Sometimes it makes me feel comfortable, knowing that I'm looking at objects in my own stellar neighbourhood, and the Milky Way is my address in this infinite place.
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Oooh! I haven't seen a good meteor shower since I witnessed the Leonids during my last year in the USA. THAT was a sight to behold. Unfortunately the Leonids come around in November and I was still in Indiana back then, and the best place to view them was down by the lake near my college. Nearly lost my tushie to the cold that night...
Let's hope the boyfriend is willing to lie with me on the beach that late on a Monday night.
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