Perseids meteor shower: spectacle falls victim to more common heavenly event

Meteors from the Perseid shower streak past stars above the Los Padres national forest in California, where the weather was better than in the UK. Photograph: Mario Anzuoni/Reuters

The advice was to try to block the moon from sight so the light reflected from it would not disturb the view of the Perseids meteor shower. But for much of Britain the moon was not the problem, itself obscured by the swathes of cloud which disappointed many stargazers.

Twitter, where an online meteor watch has been organised by the Newbury Astronomical Society and the International Year of Astronomy 2009, was a buzz discussion of clouds but scant mention of seeing any actual meteors