Look up! It’s burning trash!
Oops! You just missed it. Except you didn’t.
The Perseid meteor shower reportedly peaked in the early morning
hours Tuesday. People with enough energy to stay up that late, who
found clear, dark skies, could watch shooting stars streak across
the northeast sky.
But the show, which arrives every year in mid-August, continues
for some time before and after its peak.
Look up! It’s burning trash!
Oops! You just missed it. Except you didn’t.
The Perseid meteor shower reportedly peaked in the early morning hours Tuesday. People with enough energy to stay up that late, who found clear, dark skies, could watch shooting stars streak across the northeast sky.
But the show, which arrives every year in mid-August, continues for some time before and after its peak.
The shooting stars are not stars at all, but bits of space junk left by the comet Swift-Tuttle. As the earth passes through this cloud of junk, bits of it enter the atmosphere, pulled by earth’s gravity. Friction sets them ablaze, and the result is streaks of light.
If it’s dark enough, and you’re lucky enough, you may see one or two big enough to break up and form multiple shooting stars in mid-flight. No special equipment – well, maybe a comfortable blanket or reclining lawn chair – is required.
It may not compare to the opening ceremonies at the Beijing Olympics, but in a larger sense it’s much more spectacular.
I’m not smart enough to ponder the universe for very long. It’s too vast for my imagination to grasp. The thought of infinity overwhelms me. When I think that the sun’s light is eight minutes old by the time it reaches earth, my head begins to spin.
Once, sitting beneath the night sky, one of us began asking about light years – a measure of distance, not time. One is equal to the distance light travels in a year. Since we’re told light is motivating right along at 186,000 miles per second that’s a pretty far piece.
But the stars above us are much further away. Look up into a clear sky and some of the light you see may be coming from stars that produced it when Jesus Christ lay in a manger in Bethlehem.
Like I said, it’s a lot to grasp.
But shooting stars I get. I can completely understand burning trash. The Perseids have the twin advantages of being pretty consistent, as well as coming at a time on the calendar when the nights are pretty pleasant.
Watching them always turns into a friendly competition after a few minutes. One person will blurt something like, “WOW! Did you see that?” To which most of the rest of us will say, “Uh, no. Looking in the wrong direction again.” Then the whole thing repeats itself a minute or so later.
In other news
If meteors are not enough free entertainment to suit any of you, a trip to the Capitola pier may be in order. Last Sunday, visitors reported an estimated 2,000 brown pelicans around the wharf, bobbing on the water, covering rocks at the base of the nearby cliff and plunging into the water. Schools of fish were massed near the pier, bringing with them enormous numbers of birds.
We had a similar show earlier this summer, when sooty shearwaters mobbed the area.
Birds are notorious for coming and going, but these should be in the area as long as the fish are.
It might be a good idea not to watch Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds” if you’re planning a visit soon.
