In my late forties, I began a journey to learn to write—and somewhere along the way, I became a freelancer. I wrote stories for newspapers and a few magazines, learning as I went, one self-addressed stamped envelope at a time. I began submitting essays to local papers.
“The Meteors of August,” my very first published story, appeared on August 2, 1993, in The Des Moines Register. They paid me fifty dollars for it! I was beginning to understand how writing could connect with readers.
It’s also the very first story in Chapter 1: Celestial of The Immigrant and the Outlaw.
Here’s how it begins:
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 near 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.
The maximum activity for the Perseid Meteor Shower will be this week, on August 12 or 13. Warm weather make this the easiest one to watch from the Northern Hemisphere.
Those of you in the Southern Hemisphere, when is your best meteor shower?
This is the first story in The Immigrant and the Outlaw: A Collection of Stories from America’s Heartland.
You could ask for it at your local library.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a meteor shower.
They’re more fun with a kid!
I would think so, yes!
Somehow, being in a big city has made it far more difficult to view this spectacular show of the beauty of God’s universe. This year, the shower helps us to celebrate our anniversary!
Hope you and Guy are managing well.🎈
Our trees have grown too large as well, and city lights don’t help. But it was fun when Dan was a kid! Happy Anniversary to you! Favorite Guy and I are in the middle of 7 appointments in 10 days! But by the end, I’ll have a fresh infusion (and another heart exam) and he’ll have a new drivers license (every 2 years at our age) and be recovering from hernia surgery!
It’s been cloudy and stormy this week, so I don’t think we’ll be seeing the meteors. 😭☄️☄️☄️
Our trees have also grown too large to view from the yard, and alas, the clouds.
I have also been a meteor watcher. The Perseids have been a reliable bunch. But, the weather not so much. This year it looks like a thick cloud cover will persist. I am thankful for the internet and the online viewing opportunities it offers. This site might be clear. Otherwise, do a google search. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zIBswePr4I
Thanks for the tip, Jim. Our trees have also grown too large to watch from our yard. And no kid anymore. More fun with a kid. ha
So many times in the cockpit at night, I have mentioned to copilot and flight engineer that meteors can be seen every night, if patient. Years afterwards, quite a few have seen me and thanked me for something they have shared with their families. Very satisfying to your life-long, sky watching cousin.
Yes! Sometimes nice surprises, especially if you’ve got dark skies. A cockpit at night would be perfect. We tried watching the Leonids in November, but warm weather works better. ha
Outstanding job, Joy. Wish I’d written this!
Wow, thanks, genius astronomy man!
Your writing about the meteor shower is wonderful, Joy. It makes me more eager to read your book.
I think you’ll find something to enjoy, Tim. Thank you!
😍