Saturday, August 08, 2009

Meteor Shower

A few days ago a friend stopped by and commented on the number of shooting stars he saw late at night from the beach. According to him there were 4 - 5 every minute. Ocracoke beach has always been a perfect viewing site for shooting stars. A few years ago several of Amy's friends from Berlin went out to the beach with us. They were amazed at the sparkling display of stars (as you can imagine, not many stars are visible in the night sky in Berlin), and it was the first time they had ever seen a shooting star.

Talk of shooting stars reminded me that the Perseid Meteor Shower is almost upon us. On August 12 take a stroll outside after dark and look up into the sky. Before dawn should be good (though the waning moon rises around midnight). I think evening of the 12th would be an even better time to see shooting stars.

Enjoy!

More information is available on line at http://stardate.org/nightsky/meteors/.

This month's Ocracoke Newsletter is Lou Ann's story about volunteering for turtle patrol with the National Park Service. You can read her story and see her pictures here: http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news072809.htm.

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous3:49 PM

    Thanks for the reminder the 12th of August is the peak -- so I would be checking the night skies from now on even the few days ago could be no doubt part of the event. You never know what or how big the tail will be so don't take a chance missing it Check it out tonight TOO.

    ReplyDelete