As we discussed last week, the year’s best meteor display, the Perseid shower, is coming on Aug. 12-13. Meteors are streaks of light that appear in the sky for a second or so as bits of space debris burn up in Earth’s atmosphere.
During a meteor shower, Earth passes through the detritus left by comet Swift-Tuttle as it intersects Earth’s orbit every 133 years.
Thus, on meteor shower nights, the number of streaks increases dramatically from a few every hour to dozens during the shower’s peak hour.
The best time to observe the Perseid meteor shower this year is during the early (and I do mean early) morning of Tuesday, Aug. 13, from just after 1:30 a.m. until the rising sun spoils the view. This year, we may see as many as 60 meteors during the last hour of complete darkness from 3:45-4:45 a.m.
You can maximize your meteor count by following a few simple guidelines:
1. Go to a dark, rural sky away from city lights. For example, avoid places like Perkins Observatory, which is sandwiched between the light pollution of Delaware and Columbus.
2. Lie down on a chaise lounge or a blanket and stare in the direction least polluted by any city lights on the horizon.
The meteors will appear to originate in the constellation Perseus, which rises above the northeastern horizon at about 10 p.m. Meteors will appear over the entire sky but will always look like they’re streaking away from Perseus.
Looking straight up is always good if you have a chaise lounge and the innate ability to stay awake horizontally.
3. Use your peripheral vision to see as much of the sky as possible.
4. Important! Stick it out until morning twilight. You’ll see a lot more meteors during the pre-dawn hours on Tuesday than you will just after dark on Monday night.
The best display almost always happens in the last hour before morning twilight spoils the view.
5. Take along a blanket and some bug repellent. It gets chilly at night, and you don’t want the mosquitoes to think of you as a warm midnight buffet.
6. If skies are cloudy, you won’t see any meteors. If the forecast looks bad for Tuesday morning, try Sunday or Wednesday, especially Sunday morning. The shower will be somewhat diminished, but it beats seeing nothing.
7. Try to get some sleep before you drive back. The life you save might be mine. I’ll be driving back, too, you know.
During the 19th century, several astronomers claimed to have discovered that the Perseid meteor shower returned at the same time every year. However, evidence exists that humans have known about the periodicity of the Perseids for millennia.
For more than a thousand years, Catholics have celebrated the annual “Tears of Saint Lawrence.”
Catholics honor the saint’s martyrdom on Aug. 10. Roman soldiers tied him to a spit and roasted him. As he died, he is said to have commented, “I’m done on this side. You can turn me over now.”
His tears were tears of laughter and joy. What better tribute to the patron saint of comedians is there than the glorious meteor shower that happens two days later?
In fact, the ancient Greeks likely recognized the Perseids’ periodicity.
During the idle moments between meteors, consider the strange, perhaps coincidental, connection between the old Greek story of Perseus’s birth and the meteor shower emanating from the constellation representing him in the sky.
Perseus was half human and half god because he was the product of an illicit liaison between Zeus and Danae, the beautiful and innocent daughter of King Acrisius.
To prevent Danae from marrying, Acrisius locked her in a tower. He vowed that the lustful eyes of potential suitors would never again gaze upon her beauty.
The king didn’t figure on immortal eyes, however. Zeus, king of all the gods, had no problem seeing through the tower walls.
To sidestep the king’s security measures, Zeus transmogrified himself into a shower of golden coins and rained down on Danae’s lap through an open skylight. Nine months later, Perseus was born.
Every year around the middle of August, we see that mythic shower of gold to this very day.
Tom Burns is the former director of the Perkins Observatory in Delaware.
