Committed

Last night Spyder and I stayed up extra late to watch the Perseid meteor shower.

In our area the best time to watch was around 1 am. The parent in me balked at letting my son outside that late (early?). Spyder is enthralled with all things astronomical though, so he was excited about seeing it. The homeschooler in me decided to relax and go with it.

It was a great night for stargazing in general, really. There was a new moon, so the star field was much clearer than usual. Spyder got out his Dangerous Book for Boys and his star chart and found several constellations while waiting for a meteor. He had such a great time stargazing that he decided that he wanted to go stargazing at every new moon.

He saw the first meteor around 12:45, and we saw a total of 5 between 12:45 and 1:30 am. By then we were both so tired that it was a struggle to keep searching. Spyder came in and (quite literally) fell onto the bed and went to sleep where he landed. I came in a few minutes after, took off his shoes, washed his feet, and tucked him in. I think he was already asleep before I ever got there.

It was a great experience though, and I'm glad that I stuck to the commitment that I had made to let him see it.