Keep Your Eyes to the Skies

The summer months provide an excellent time for star gazers to check out some truly spectacular astronomical activity. One of the most highly anticipated events of the year for sky watchers is the Perseids Meteor Shower which falls August 12th or 13th every year. The 2008 shower will occur in the wee morning hours of Tuesday, August 12th.

The Perseids are the most watched annual meteor shower. The cosmic activity of the Perseids is visible starting in mid-July with the greatest activity occuring between August 8th and 14th, peaking on August 12th when the Perseids will display 60 or more meteors an hour.

Unfortunately, this year the moon will be waxing which will obstruct the shower somewhat - meteors are best viewed in a dark sky. However, if you're an early risr, the shower will be quite visible close to dawn when the moon has set. It is still possible to view the shower a few hours earlier, however, as long as you keep the moon out of your field of view. The best time to start watching would be around 2:00 a.m. It's unfortunate that the shower occurs on a Tuesday for working folks. Many Perseids enthusiasts arm themselves with snacks, bug sprag, binoculars and lawn chairs and spend the entire night outside, taking in the display.

To spot the showers, simply look to the darkest point in the sky and keep your eyes trained there until you see streaking flashes of light. It might be a good idea to have your wish list at the ready, since all of these "falling" or "shooting stars" provide a prime opportunity to silently entreaty for your heart's desire, whatever it may be.

Meteors are intense streaks of light which "shoot" across the night sky. They are made up of rock and debris called meteoroids which crash and burn high in Earth's upper atmosphere. The meteoroids originate from the icy, dusty debris stream which follow comets around on their orbits. When the Earth passes through debris left behind by a comet, a meteor shower occurs.

The Perseids meteor shower is the result of the Earth's annual journey through the debris field left behind by the Swift Tuttle comet which passed through our solar system in 1863 and 1992.

Meteors travel at thousands of miles an hour and when they enter the Earth's atmosphere, the friction causes them to ignite in the searing upper atmosphere 30 - 80 miles above the ground. Almost all of them are destroyed in the process, however, the rare few that survive and hit the ground are called meteorites.

All meteor showers are named after the point or "radiant" from which they appear to originate. The Perseids appear to originate from the constellation Perseus, thus their name. Other meteor showers include the Leonids, the Lyrids and the Geminids, but the Perseids are by far the most reliable.

The Perseids have been observed for nearly 2,000 years. In early Europe the meteors were known as the "tears of St. Lawrence." Laurentias, a Christian deacon, was martyred on an iron stove by the Romans in 258 AD. He was purported to have cried out, "I am already roasted on one side, and if thou wouldst have me well cooked, it is time to turn me on the other!" His death was commemorated on August 10th. Since this was around the time of the annual meteor shower, the event came be known as the "fiery tears of St. Lawrence."

This August 12th, plan to spend the night under the stars and observe nature's own fireworks - they don't cost a thing and they inspire just as much awe as coloured gunpowder.