I got in after an evening of cocktails and dinner in downtown Santa Cruz and settled into a chair outside way out of the light.
No fog tonight after several nights when it rolled in just after dusk and didn't depart until 10ish. Last night was supposed to be the highest pitch of the periodic Persied meteor showers. I grabbed a high back chair off the porch and took it out into the yard, planning to settle into it and see if there were still meteors out. Predicting the intensity of a meteor shower is about as exact a science as predicting the intensity of a cold front or a tornado or a hurricane or an open ocean swell.
Tonight the Persied is raging! I didn't even get settled into my chair before a major streaker lit up the sky and left a 3 or 4 in trail. I sat down and a moment later saw a flurry of smaller ones. Then, a couple minutes later, another big boy with a long tail. I decided I'd wait up to see 10, figuring that would take like an hour. I scored 12 in less than 45 minutes.
Go outside. Look up to the northeast. They seem to be appearing right out of the Double Cluster, unmistakably the brightest thing in the sky a little bit below Cassiopia. I'm seeing them left to right. Big, bright trailers in the deep dark sky.