Meteors before and after the Perseid peak.

Sunday was the peak of the Perseid meteor shower, but that doesn't mean that you shouldn't pay attention to the sky.

Nearly two weeks ago, I saw one really brilliant meteor streak over downtown Portland, a very bright ball of fire that grew quickly, but was a short streak.

Then tonight around 9:10 or so, I was staring up to see if the ISS was passing overhead while I was walking outside, then out of the corner of my eye I thought I saw a low-flying plane's bright lights, but it turned out to be a very low flying meteor that lasted for a couple of seconds, and had a very distinctive tail with the rippling stream.  That was the first time I'd ever seen a fiery tail rippling, that close.  Previously, I'd just seen those high-flying streaks that lasted less than a second.

Very cool stuff.

I only wish I had my camera out for the show...but like lightning, very hard to catch.