The annual Perseid meteor shower peaks tonight into early Sunday morning and if the sky above you is clear you are sure to enjoy a spectacular astronomical show. While the meteors are the main billing tonight, there are a few other players on the stellar stage. Look to the east early tomorrow morning before dawn as Jupiter, then the moon and finally Venus will rise, creating a nice diagonal line. Of course with any of these events in the sky the weather is the most important variable. It won't matter how great the meteors are if it's overcast. Much of Texas, the Ohio Valley, Tennessee, the northern parts of Alabama, Mississippi and the Rockies look to have favorable sky conditions. parts of Florida and a good deal of the West Coast will also be mainly clear.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on this blog or any others. If you have a weather or gardening question ask me on Twitter at @growingwisdom and be sure to tell me where you are located.

Saturday night clear skies over much of the country helped create anticipation for a great display of the aurora borealis or northern lights. Unfortunately, much of the activity remained across the border in Canada although there were reports of activity in places like Duluth Minnesota and Burlington, Vermont.

Tonight, if you have clear skies, there is another chance to see the northern lights. You might wonder what makes it so difficult to predict. What you are seeing is the charged atmosphere as a result of tremendous energy being ejected from the sun. These flares tend to increase as the activity of the sun increases on an 11 year cycle. When a solar flare errupts on the sun it's like millions of hydrogen bombs exploding over a short period of time. (10 minutes or so). The energy from the flare rushes towards our atmosphere and charges it up. When we see the northern or southern lights we are seeing the sparks in the atmosphere from the charging. You can see shades of blue, white and even purple. Scientists have recently confirmed the lights also have a sound to them as well.
I will tweet updates on Twitter at @growingwisdom