The star-strewn Milky Way hung across August night during my childhood on an Iowa farm, and a curtain of other stars stretched all the way to the horizon–the amphitheater for my favorite meteor show.
The Perseids.
I keep watch for the return of the Perseids the second week of every August. Catching the flash of a meteor still sparks anticipation and awe in me, even though I know that these mysteries of the heavens are just spaceborn grains of rock or metal. As they are swept up in the earth’s orbit around the sun, they burn up in our atmosphere, beckoning silently as they dart across the darkness.
As a child, charmed by these falling or shooting stars, as we called them, I did not realize that the Perseids have been a favorite of other night sky watchers throughout the decades. Generations of my ancestors probably saw them and pondered the marvels of the universe.
Any night of the year, meteors can be seen on a dark night–up to half a dozen in an hour. But several predictable times during the year, we can see meteor showers, even dozens of them in an hour, when the earth looms near the orbit of a comet or asteroid.
This silent summer show is named for Perseus, the constellation where the “radiant,” or streaks, seem to begin, and the performance is due to debris of a comet’s path. The earth’s orbit takes us nearest the path of the comet, Swift-Tuttle, the second week of August.
Comet Swift-Tuttle is the largest object (16 miles wide) to regularly swish nearby the Earth on its oblong path around the sun. It passed by us in 1992, and will swing by next in 2126. But we orbit right through the comet’s debris every August.
Many Perseids have “trains,” or dimly glowing tails, and they are visible in all areas of the country.
I stay up past midnight to scan the sky. The streetlights of civilization make modern meteor watching more difficult, but I have seen dozens in an hour from my suburban back yard, away from those lights. I just wear a layer of bug spray and take a blanket to lie on, let my eyes get accustomed to the dark as I listen to crickets and tree frogs.
Then watch and anticipate.
Meteors shoot out about one per minute during a Perseid shower. Once I witnessed a bright fireball with a flame-shaped tail, a sight I will long remember.
Perhaps I’ll behold a bolide breaking up at the end of its path, or even hear its thunder.
A meteor shower on a summer night is one of life’s delights.
Watching the fires of these tiny, far-away transients tends to put my own path in perspective, and also takes me back to those wondrous summer nights of my childhood.
The Des Moines Register, August 2, 1993. Above is the first writing I got paid for. $50.
He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name. – Psalm 147:4
Beautifully written! I look forward to these showers every year. I always have the meteor showers written on my calendar so that I don’t miss them. Even in winter, I don’t mind standing for a few minutes in the freezing cold in the middle of the night to enjoy them! Nature is a wonder. Love this – thanks for sharing!
How interesting! I espied a ‘shooting star’ during the early hours of the morning a few weeks ago.
I was just about to say you’d probably see a lot more this week, then remembered that you’re in the Southern Hemisphere–so your cyclical meteor showers aren’t the same. What an amazing planet we live on!
There was quite a meteor show last night. I caught some of it driving back from Knoxville, TN to Asheville, NC. Pretty impressive!
Peak time is to be tonight into tomorrow morning. Our trees have gotten so large that it no longer works to watch for them from the back yard. And more fun with a kid anyway. ha
I saw quite a show late last night while driving from Knoxville, TN back to Asheville, NC. Spectacular!!
Been a big fan of the perseids ever since I was a kid. We had great skies for that stuff in Southern Colorado. not so great in Greeley. I reckon if I got away from the city and went out onto the pawnee grasslands, I’d get a good show.
Our trees have gotten too large to watch from the back yard. Guess I could go out to the farm, but it’d still be more fun with a kid.
Lovely post and poem! 🙂
Bless you, Anne.
Where we live the skies are quite dark, so I’ll have to make a point of staying up late tonight. Great story!
Enjoy!
I’ve never seen a meteor shower. I thought they only happened by chance. Now I know better! (I really like the poem, too, particularly the second stanza.)
There are a handful of regular meteor showers, but this August one is most popular because of the weather and its consistency. https://www.amsmeteors.org/meteor-showers/meteor-shower-calendar/
[…] awake much of the night, mesmerized at the number and colors in a meteor shower–the marvelous Perseids. Bovines They also camped out in pasture northwest of town. Each girl was assigned to bring […]