The moon will have set for us here by the time the eclipse gets going. As if to make up for our local eclipse blackout, there's another upcoming event with good local observing prospects. The annual Perseid meteor shower will peak on the night of Aug. 12. During that time, an observer with clear dark skies can expect to see an average of a meteor a minute after midnight. Barring cloudy weather, the observing prospects couldn't be better.
Moonlight is the enemy of meteor watchers because it can wash out fainter meteors.
This year's Perseids offer the best observing conditions since 1996. Timing could be better for the 1999 Perseids. The shower peaks this year on a Thursday night, hardly a time when most of us would want to hang around outside after midnight. The Perseids are always more numerous after midnight. They are tiny bits of rocky space debris left in the orbital wake of Comet Swift-Tuttle.