Since we're already getting up at 5:15 AM to get Tatiana to school, I figured we may as well watch the Orionid meteor shower.

Although I woke her up a little late, Tatiana was ready in record time. I explained that the Orionids are the remains of Halley's Comet's last visit in 1986; even now there's still enough debris to make a meteor shower. I tried to keep expectations realistic, pointing out that the frequency was only expected to be twelve an hour (or one every five minutes), and that our terrible light pollution would probably keep us from seeing even that many. But Tatiana was still excited, since she's never seen a shooting star before.

We saw 5 meteors in 15 minutes! Two of them we shared, and one of them was really spectacular. We also saw three satellites (we think).

Melissa woke up early (for her) at 6:30 AM, so I told her, too. We only saw one meteor, which isn't surprising since it was getting so close to dawn and things weren't really dark at all. But her first shooting star was also a great one!

Not a bad morning for fatherhood. I shared their first shooting star with two of my daughters!