Gotta see those Perseid meteor showers !

byreefswimmer

1.2K followers

15 years ago

Tonight is the night !  August 12-13, 2010.  The moon is pretty new, and anyway it sets around 10 pm, with the showers blasting out of Perseus  starting (I think ) an hour or so later.  That means that by 11 pm tonight, I will be out in the yard on a blanket, lying on the grass so the horizon is kinda in my peripheral vision, and seeing what catches my eye.  Perseus is (I think) in the northeast sky, rising above the horizon somewhat around 11 pm, so that's where I will focus my dark-adapted eyesight.  Once I see one meteor  ( or falling star so-called) that tells me the part of the sky to watch for more. Tonight we should be able to see one per minute or so. 

By the time you read this post, tonight's shower will have passed.  But check it out for the next couple nights. This mid-August event-in-the-sky goes on for a few nights.

I have this life-long history of watching the show.  As a kid, my friends and I discovered it all by happenstance, as we camped out on an island off the Maine coast.  No city lights there. Just the amazing canopy of stars.  And Wow! the show started. I.ve been hooked ever since.

Then (as if I needed even more encouragement), one summer evening around 1966 or so, I was outdoors in a meadow with friends (aren.t friends great ?) on Long Island New York,  when one yelled Look ! and pointed to the sky, exactly in time for us quick lookers to watch a multicolored tail  streak in a memorable arc across the sky.  One of those amazing meteors had entered the atmosphere of planet earth and got all burned up in a multicolored streak.  And for that, it earned itself a whole new name: meteorite  We were dazzled, and we were sure it landed just one or two fields from where we stood. That-s how close it felt.Next morning, the newspaper set us straight.  Yes, a meteorite.  No, it didn't land in the next field.  It landed  about halfway up the state of New York, maybe 150 miles from where we watched it. It probably felt right next door to everyone who watched. 

So, each August I look with delight.  Seeing the show,does depend, of course, on all the big planetary stuff like cloud cover, moonlight etc. Soooooooooooo, time to go check it out !  I'll let you know.