About 20 hopeful students who gathered on the Green after dusk Wednesday night were disappointed by clouds hiding the meteor shower they hoped to see.
By 10:30 p.m. just one couple, asleep on the Green, remained.
The Perseid meteor shower occurs each year when the Earth passes through debris left behind in the orbit of the Swift-Tuttle comet. The comet passes the Earth's orbit once every 130 years, most recently this past December.
Astronomers predicted the fresh ice and dust left by the comet would produce spectacular meteor showers Wednesday night. Showers were visible in starry nights across the U.S. and Europe, but much of the East Coast, including the Green, was clouded over.
There was better viewing later that night from the Hanover Country Club golf course, where students and Hanover residents came and went throughout the night.
They all gazed towards the northeast, where the shower appears each year near the constellation Perseus. Every few minutes a single shooting star streaked through the sky like a laser, leaving for an instant a ghostly, flaming trail.
"I've watched it every year since I was a kid," said J.J. Betts '95, who had been at the golf course for half an hour. "I've already seen two huge [shooting stars]," Betts said. "Usually you only see one of those a year."
