One nice thing about being in the desert

Meteor showers are, by all accounts, pretty brilliant.

The best bet for people hoping to see the showers – known as the Perseids – is to get away from well-lit towns, according to Hasan Ahmed al Hariri, the chief executive of the Dubai Astronomy Group, a non-profit association of astronomy enthusiasts with 1,300 members worldwide, including 800 in the UAE.

The group is assembling at Dubai’s Margham area to watch the climax of the event from the desert, which Mr al Hariri recommends for unimpeded viewing.

"Light pollution prevents us from even seeing the stars,” he said. In the desert, however, it is “quite dark, so it’s better to see the events”.

The Perseids will first appear in the small hours of Wednesday morning, when the meteorites will appear to emerge from a single point in the sky known as the radiant, in the constellation Perseus, which only rises after midnight in the UAE.

Of course, I don't have a car--or a camel--but we'll see if there is some way to get away from the arc-sodium madness of Abu Dhabi and check out some falling bits of rock.