Perseid Shower etc

I haven't done much observing lately in our horribly light polluted subdivision but two things gave me some incentive.  First was the excellent essay in the July 2019 S&T by Christopher Cokinos on observing the moon. His situation of moving from a dark sky rural area to light polluted Tucson was similar to my own and I immediately connected. Second was the occasion of the Perseid meteor shower. I woke up this morning about 4:00am which isn't unusual but this time I slipped out back to my small spot that is free of direct street light.  It's still light enough to almost read by but it would have to do. I grabbed a patio chair and looked up. The moon was low in the west and not a bother and I could actually see several brighter stars. Within a half hour I had spotted three or four bright streaks coming roughly from the direction of Perseus over my right shoulder. I figured the limiting magnitude was about 3 since I could see 4 of the 5 bright stars of Cassiopeia but not mag 3.3 Epsilon Cas. Not too bad a finish for a night when earlier I had made a contact with NF5U in Dallas with 5w during the NAQCC sprint for August.
This short session was a far cry from a night earlier in the month when we were camped in Cap Rock Canyons State Park in Texas. On the night of Aug 1, 2019 my Sky Quality Meter registered 21.54 and I was able to see the beautiful Milky Way in all of its glory. This compares with 20.51 in Sydney MT 28 July 2019, 21.62 4 June 2019 at Frank's camp, 2 June 2019 UT camp 21.68, 31 May 2019 Santa Fe 21.38, and on 29 May was 21.26. Clovis NM 27 May 20.77, 25 May Lk Arrowhead SP TX 18.3. 22 May 2019 Red Rock Cyn OK 19.26. 4 May 2019 Lane Springs 21.38.