(meteorobs) Numerous and bright : Perseid 2008 !

[Karl Antier]

Hi all,

Back from a small observing session, unfortunately without
official report, due to the surpre of spotting stars after
two days of dramatic thunderstorms...
It was actually more than two weeks since we didn't see
serious cloudy skies, here, in Provence (South-Eastern France).
But on Tuesday, 11th, skies begin to cover up and thunderstorms
made their apparition...
Not a single star visible during the 11-12 night, and at 6h30 am,
thus just when the Sun rised, clouds left the sky...
To come back yesterday evening, triggering huge thunderstorms
which hided the skies... At 3h00 am (1h UT), small holes in 
the clouds make me hope to catch parts of the shower, even if
I didn't take my observing material. At 1h30 UT, skies were
nearly perfect, probably close to a lm. +6.7! Wonderful!
Perseids were very very very active!
Nearly all of them come by cluster of two, three, four, five,
or even six or seven in less than two or three seconds! 
I can not remember having seen so active Perseids. To give
you an idea, I counted 35 Perseids in 15 minutes between 
(1h20 and 1h35 UT)...
Most of them were really bright. From 1h30 UT to 3h UT, 
more than a dozen Perseids could be considered as fireballs,
half of them as bright or brighter than -5.
The highlight was probably the two brightest fireballs 
ocuring within 5 seconds from each other of -7 and -9 
magnitude!
After 3h UT, rate rapidly seemed to fall... Effect of the
rising Sun or end of a real secondary peak?

Just hope now that some of you manage to catch the display!
Clear skies!
Karl