Every August the skies above the Northern Hemisphere are peppered with little bits of space debris from Comet Swift-Tuttle that create the Perseid meteor shower. The debris is ancient, tiny (the size of a pea), fast, bright (it vaporizes on entering the atmosphere), and occasionally leave persistent trains or even spark into cosmic fireballs.
The Perseid's are so named because they appear to emanate from the constellation Perseus.
Constellations Perseus and AndromedaThe best time to watch is between 12:00-5:00 a.m. on Wednesday.
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2 comments:
Thank you for this reminder, Sean. I'll be out tomorrow watching the skies. Isn't God's artistry a beautiful wonder?!
In Italy this meteor shower is called the "tears of St. Lawrence" since the shower occurs around the feast day of the saint. Thanks for the reminder - even I may get up to watch in spite of it occuring at a beastly hour of the morning!
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