perseid meteor shower

[lawrence-johnson]

Not sure what area I should have posted this on, but since I have been trying to see this year's Persied Meteor shower from my back yard and this is the Backyard Observing Program area, here it goes;
Any luck out there with observations? I live in the Katy area, still under the light dome of Houston. On August 8th, I started looking at about 930pm looking... and with minimal beverage and restroom breaks throughout the evening into the morning, I saw ONE, count it...ONE meteor streak. That was at 1030pm. I stayed out until 130 am until I finally gave up. The estimated count I have read ranges from 50 to 100 per hour. I would think in the 4 or so hours I was out, I'd see more than one. Looked online again the next day and read they are more active in the predawn hours. Well, maybe not more active, but easier to see. So, anyway, I started at 330 am this morning until dawn crept in and skies lightened... about 6am... NOTHING!!!. I don't think true dark skies are really that necessary since the one I did see was very bright. Any ideas? On the plus side, it has kept me from setting up my camera and doing any time lapse pictures; I prefer a dark sky site for that anyway.

[stephen-jones]

Well for starters the rates you're reading about are for the peak, which isn't till Sunday. Beyond that, yes dark skies are absolutely necessary. If the one you saw was still pretty bright then that just means that one was a doozy. Keep in mind also that if there were any that were just barely visible you wouldn't have noticed them unless you were looking right at them.

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[barneyj]

We had the Weimar dark site to ourselves Wednesday night where we counted 49 from 10pm to 1:30am when we left.

The early ones before midnight were very dim and short lived. After mid night we saw a few that came close to throwing a shadow and traveled about half the sky.
We may try again, weather permitting.

[lawrence-johnson]

OK, thanks for the feedback.