August Meteor Shower
There’s a buzz going around the media and the Internet about the August Meteor Shower phenomenon. August has been called the month of worship, so surely it’s deeply rooted in the history of our ancestors as well. These showers must have been around in August for a long time. The Meteor Shower is a result of tiny bits and pieces of the comet Swift-Tuttle.
Apparently this comet, moves around the sun in an orbit as the Earth and many other of our solar system planets do. Swift Tuttle gets the closest to the earth each year in August, and the year 2009 has not been any different than the previous recorded ones. As the dust and debris left behind fall from Swift Tuttle and move towards the Earth, they burn up when colliding with our atmosphere. This means that these shooting stars are very close to us even though we perceive them far. And this is called the Perseid meteor shower, which is named after the constellation of Perseus.
Coming from an afternoon shift of work last night, while driving I saw the moon having more of a pale yellow color than its normal pearl white. It was seating low on the east horizon and the sky looked pretty clear without any clouds, which has been very odd after weeks of rain in Toronto in July and August. I stepped out of my car at approximately 11:30 pm, which happened to be August 12, 2009. I looked up at the sky, as I do almost every time I get a chance to on a quiet night and a clear sky to reflect and let myself get mesmerized by the beauty and the vastness of the universe. The second I lifted my head up, I saw a meteor or a shooting star go by, roughly towards northwest direction. I thought I had only imagined it because moved so quickly and I only saw it from the corner of my eyes. But once I kept looking for no longer than 30 seconds I saw 3 or more go by with lightening speed. It was a very incredible scene. Not that I had never seen meteors before, but it was the length, the speed and the frequency of these meteors or so-called “shooting stats” that was truly amazing.
Today is August 13, 2009 and only an hour ago I caught many headlines on Google about the intensity of Perseid Meteor Shower which have started from July 17th and will be vigorous until August 24th. Not so surprisingly the astronomers say that the Meteor Shower intensity is at the highest on August 12, August 13, 2009 and at around 11:00 pm.
What direction is the best to view shooting stats?
Astronomers say towards the Northeast. So had I turned my head a tiny bit to the right I could have been even more memorized. If the sky and clouds permit tonight I hope to catch more of these Meteor showers that the Swift Tuttle so generously leaves behind for us.
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