The Perseid meteor shower is coming! Best viewing times are supposed to be near midnight, or right before dawn. The Earth will be cutting through the densest part of the debris stream this Sunday night, August 12th. So break out your lawn chairs and let the kids stay up late, or plan on waking them up for this magical sight. This meteor shower has an amazing one or two meteors per minute during peak hours, so you won’t have to wait long to see one.
Viewing this year is supposed to be extra good because the new moon will not be casting enough light to interfere. You do want to find a place as far away from city lights as possible. Even if you can’t get away from the city, it’s worth going outside to see what you can. I’ve even seen a great number of meteors in the Atlanta sky during this time of year.
I’m sure the kids will ask what meteors are. Even though a lot of people call meteors “shooting stars” they really aren’t stars. The meteors from the Perseid shower are the remains of the Comet Swift-Tuttle which passes by Earth every 130 years. The remains are as big as marbles or as tiny as a grain of sand. They enter our atmosphere at over 133,000 miles per hour. This great speed causes the air to compress and heat up. This causes the meteor to heat up to more than 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
To make your family viewing more fun, consider afternoon naps to guard against grumpiness. A comfy pillow to go on the lawn chair and a blanket against the chill of the night is good. Cuddling together under the night sky makes this more special. Some hot chocolate or peppermint or chamomile tea to sip is nice, too.
I love sleeping children, but this is worth waking them up for! It’s such a marvelous chance to share the amazing world we live in and to peak their curiosity about science.
To learn more about meteors and space visit these great links for ideas and reading lists:
A Unit Study Starter on Backyard Astronomy
What Your Second Grader Should Know: Science