The Perseids.

There were lots of things we could have done last night - I wanted to go to a late night Prom at The Albert Hall with Jamie Cullum.

It would have been quite a night.

Unfortunately, Robyn put her foot down and wouldn't let me go. She was quite right, I'm not up to it any more.

There were some local bands playing too but for whatever reason neither of us felt like going out to see them.

But we did stay up to see The Perseids, the meteorite storm that comes every August and was at its peak last night.

It wasn't easy because there was a bright moon blocking the sky for most of the evening and lots of clouds.

By midnight the moon had set and there were some breaks in the clouds. If I'd known we would have gone somewhere dramatic but in the end we stood on the front path craning our necks.

We saw a few - including a couple of low ones. I felt it wasn't such a great show, Robyn thought we were very lucky.

I should be more grateful, last year we didn't see a thing.

It was quiet and strange - all around us the shuffling noises of little animals and birds moving. In the distance a fox screaming. Every so often we set of the security lights on the houses opposite.

And once in the while a shooting star high over head.

Ah!

There may be some stragglers over the next few nights although the peak has passed and there are other nights including an autumn one which is worth looking out for.

But nothing could compare with 2014 when we went down to Ankerwycke with a couple of chairs and some lager and spent the evening holding hands and watching shooting stars long into the night.

Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)
Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

Thanks, Swift-Tuttle.

So today, Tuesday, I went back to Oncology.

I'm out of Data (no broadband) and I'm out of order by about three days on the Blog but hey! Who cares?

It was OK.

Forget median survival rates (my cancer always shrugged them off).

I'm nearly at the max on this drug, so expensive I
only get it thanks to the Cancer Drug fund.

I have another month, well 28 days to be precise.

What do you do when you got another 28 days?

Me and Robyn, kitted up (folding chairs, a blanket, lager, a cigar, a clockwork torch and a smart phone) headed out to watch The Perseids, the dust left behind when comet Swift-Tuttle passed this way some time in the ice-cold past of the galaxy.

No big deal? No way, it means that at this time of year every August we get a fireworks display of shooting stars if we are lucky.

This was never going to be a lucky year - there's a big fat harvest moon - not only a full moon but a 'supermoon' when the moon is at it's closest to Earth.

At 8 pm we were sat in McDonalds eating an icecream and watching it rain.

Then we drove around looking for a spot - if it had been a good year I'd have driven to the South Downs for my last display but it was cloudy.

In the end we parked up at historic Ankerwycke where The Magna Carta was signed.

When it got 'dark' (it didn't thanks to the moon) we sat out in the cold and waited. Actually, as I got out of the car I caught site of a really low, fizzing grazer.

We missed all the little ones, couldn't see them but we saw a handful of the biggest so there were a few Oohs and Aahs.

A perfect end to a day that could have gone really badly. This time next year I won't care about this but I've watched those meteorites all my life.

Nice to say goodbye.

Now 28 days, lets give you something to remember us by.

Neil Harris
( a don't stop till you drop production)

Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com

Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

The main stream is over but if you look up tonight, if it's clear, you might see some stragglers. I may chance it too.

Stardust in my eyes.

I wrote this at 2-00am on Monday night, but Blogger was being naughty and I couldn’t post it. I’m on tour this week – it’s not a farewell tour (not yet) but it’s my ‘fill your pockets and run like f@#k’ tour.

I have to go to the clinic next Monday and so this week is going to be about fun.

So on Saturday I took in the SkaSouls at Mr Bumbles in Camberley, a night which ended with the audience dancing on the tables.

Monday night I was at the Jazz Club – I’ll Blog on that later when I feel a bit better. Then I went out ‘after midnight’, to have a look at the shooting stars.

This was what I wrote;

 

It’s midnight but I can’t say it’s clear and bright – there’s a haze of cloud and because I’m not far from Heathrow airport and the M25, it’s catching the light pollution.But there are patches where there is no cloud and the stars are shining through.

So too are The Perseids – the remains of Comet Swift-Tuttle’s trail. Because of the conditions I couldn’t catch the numerous little ones that burn up very high in the atmosphere. However, I still saw quite a few – I stopped counting at 20.

I saw two that left long white streaks across the sky and then ….a beauty. I didn’t actually see it pass and very unusually, when I saw the streak out of the corner of my eye, I was able to follow it and catch sight of the trail it left behind. I counted to three as I watched it disperse – it looked like the vapour trail you get off the back of a jet plane, except this wasn’t water vapour, it was burning! Then it went out, quickly, again like a flame going out. No sound at all. What a whopper!

As far as height goes, they are normally very high up – higher than the highest level planes – because at night you can see the planes lights high up and compare them.

However my trail was much lower than normal and I would estimate lower than 30,000 feet which is the normal cruising height of a plane.

So pretty impressive. Pity I missed its fireball.

It was a weird, weird night. Still and cold for August.

I was stood in the middle of a field, part of a medieval field system and nunnery. Foxes were screeching, birds crawing. There were strange sounds – things crashing in the hedges as I passed, startled by me. I didn’t see any bats, which is unusual but I did have to play Russian roulette with cowpats in the field.

On my way home, there were no cars, everything was silent and noisey at the same time, in the way the countryside is when all the people are in bed.

At 1-30 am, someone lit a big bonfire in his front garden – very eccentric and what was he burning?

I stopped because I was cold and aching. As I came back I was thinking of all the people who stood in this field in August a thousand years or so ago or since, watching for shooting stars just like I was tonight.

 

There will be a good shower in the autumn, but not like this one. These shooting stars will be falling next August and every August to follow – why not have a look next year, and think of me when you see one.

Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production)

Stardust memories.

 I’m feeling a bit sorry for myself as I just got back from doing a blood test. While I was waiting, I was thinking of the old Tour de France joke;

It was a long, hard mountain stage, the winner staggered into Drug Control, to give his sample. He took a long time in the cubicle.

An hour or so later;

“It’s alright, Monsieur, the test is negative.” It was the analyst with the result. “Oh by the way, congratulations, you are having twin boys”.

Mind you, when I tried getting someone else to give the blood for me back in May (The 13^th of 13^th), it didn’t work out for me– it turned out they were more ill than I was.

Anyway, even though my plans tend to go wrong on me these days, I’ve planned out more than a few adventures over the next week and a bit.

Here’s one you can share with me;

Next week its time for ‘The Perseids’ to visit us again. This is a shower of shooting stars, due to peak around the 12^th of August, near dawn.

Don’t worry about that time; it’s not an exact science.

Millennia ago, a comet passed earth by, leaving dust and debris from its tail as it went. Every year we pass through this trail and if we’re lucky we get to see a shower of shooting stars, which seem to radiate from a point near the constellation, Perseus. It’s just grains of stardust, burning up in the atmosphere.

I usually go out about midnight and if it’s a clear night I go somewhere as far away from lights as I can find and then just look up into the sky. The nearer you are to the peak, the more often you are likely to see one. Then when you’ve located where it came from, focus in to that part of the sky. Use your peripheral vision, they come out of nowhere and are gone before you can get a fix - it's just luck.

When you catch sight of the first one, you will be hooked for life.

Even better, once in a forever you may catch sight of a ‘grazer’ or what is sometimes called a ‘fireball’. Normally they burn up really high in the atmosphere, miles away.  I said, these things are tiny - grains of dust ranging up to a grain of sand at most – but sometimes they are bigger. Sometimes, one seems to come in at a very low angle or is at the end of its journey. Then you can see a tiny but distinctly burning fireball and you get the illusion that it’s up close. And then it’s really WOW! time a short firework display.

My advice, for what it’s worth is to keep an eye out from the 11^th onwards, when it’s a clear night go out watching. I’m not sure whether I’m up to doing an all-nighter. It’s been cloudy for me the last couple of years, anyway. 

But for a glimpse of stardust?

We’ll see.

Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production)