On August 12th, I participated in a NASA mission lead by Peter Jenniskens to hunt meteors.  This mission, along with a second mission on September 1st has been designed to study two meteor showers, the annual Perseid shower peaking on August 13th, and the Aurigid shower on September 1st.

On September 1st, between midnight and 6 a.m. Pacific Daylight Savings Time, a sudden shower of bright meteors is expected, which will radiate from the constellation Auriga, entering the atmosphere at a speed of 67 km/s. The shower is expected to peak at a rate about three times that of the annual Perseid shower. This Aurigid shower will happen because Earth travels through the dust trail of comet C/1911 N1 (Kiess).