I remember my grandfather tell me about one early morning in the mid-60's when he was driving down the lane leading to the farm house when all of the sudden every star in the sky began moving. He saw the Leonid meteor storm of November 1966, (picture is from a similar storm in 1833) an annual meteor shower that peaks every 33 years. Ever since then I have dreamed of seeing a true meteor storm, with rates peaking at 10,000 per minute.
Tonight is the annual recurrence of the Perseid meteor shower, regarded as 'Old Faithful' because of it's reliable-but-not-spectacular nature. The Baltimore Sun reports this year's event is nearly ideal with a New Moon and good weather forecast. I'll be out there at 1am tonight with the dreams of a young boy of seeing the stars fall out of the sky just like my Grandfather saw, but knowing I'll be lucky to see but a few. Hopefully I won't wake up at 4am with ants up my pants!
1 comment:
What a neat memory!
Did you see any?
Chris and I saw one about 10pm and then I set my alarm for 4am (with the thought we might wake the kids), but I didn't see any and it was very cloudy so I went back to bed and re-set the alarm for 5:15am. When I went outside that time, I saw one, so I ran in the house and we got everyone up and we drove to an empty farm field. I'm sure the six of us were quite a sight. :) We saw a couple, but we're still too close to the city. Too much light pollution! Next time we'll have to plan a camping trip.
It was fun to hit the McDonald's drive-through for breakfast. We don't do that very often. :)
Have a great week!
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