Nothing compares to a clear sky on the night of a meteor shower. It's one of the only things I can spend hours doing and not get bored with. Sadly though, last night was the Perseids Meteor shower and I missed it. I laid in my driveway for half and hour around midnight and could not make out a single star through the cloud covered sky. I decided to do a little research on Perseids to satiate my fascination. Here's what I found...
Perseus was the son of Zeus and Danae. Super long story short, he was sent on a journey to kill Medusa and succeeded with the help of her back-stabbing sisters. On his way back home he crossed paths with Andromeda who was chained to a rock as a sacrifice to a sea monster, dressed in nothing but her shackles (scandalous). Needless to say he fell in love and told her father he would kill the monster in exchange for her hand in marriage. Interesting, eh?
Catholics have called the shower "tears of Saint Lawrence" in remembrance of Laurentius, a deacon who was martyred through fire around 258 AD.
For optimum viewing, along with getting away from city lights, drive
toward the Constellation and lay with the horizon in your peripheral vision. If you can see all the stars in the Little Dipper you know your eyes have adjusted to the light enough to see the meteors. images from:
http://images.google.com/imgresimgurl=
http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/images/perseids99.jpg&imgrefurl=http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/images/perseids99.html&usg=__KlbMLwLSHJtXJpym1HL1AANiK2U=&h=553&w=838&sz=202&hl=en&start=14&um=1&tbnid=eGPQlFDFLv3XzM:&tbnh=95&tbnw=144&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dperseids%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den-us%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Perseus_und_Andromeda_MKL1888.pnghttp://my.execpc.com/60/B3/culp/astronomy/Spring/Polar.html
No comments:
Post a Comment