Perseid Meteor shower Archives - Owl Medicine: Shamanic Healing

Perseid Meteors

Over the past few nights, the sky has been exquisitely clear in my neck of the woods, especially around midnight. In spite of conducive conditions, I’ve yet to catch a glimpse of any Perseid meteors streaking across the sky. I’m hopeful, though. Maybe tonight will be my lucky night.

Technically, the Perseids last until August 24^thbut they are at ‘maximum streaks per minute’ across the sky later this week.

Of course, as I looked up into the moonless sky last night, thinking about the Perseids and how happy I am when they arrive every year, I was distracted by a few other bright celestial objects calling out to me.

Jupiter & Saturn right now – w/horizon – Sky Guide app

Jupiter and Saturn

First and among the most prominent are Jupiter and Saturn.

Jupiter is pretty hard to miss in the Southeastern sky. It’s obvious why this massive planet is deemed to be a ‘benefic,’ or planet that brings good fortune to us when it makes aspects in our charts. Jupiter is the ‘biggest’ planet we can see with our naked eyes, the one that unexpectedly draws our eyes toward it and say, “What’s that?”

And once again, I must confess, I cannot gush enough about my Sky Guide astronomy app. I love how it tells me exactly what I’m looking at – and even shows me what’s going on below the horizon. The Milky Way dazzles on this app – and only makes me ache to see it again from a place with little vast stretches of open sky and little light pollution.

I was thinking about all of you last night as my heart kept opening wider and wider. I was on my back on top of a picnic table, entranced by the night sky and the accompanying cadence of crickets and katydids. The ethereal music the app creators added to the Sky Guide is truly a perfect accompaniment to cosmos-gazing.

Jupiter & Saturn – just minutes ago – Photo: L. Weikel

Shooting ‘Stars’

I’m almost always amply rewarded for my determination to celebrate our planet’s annual trek through space dust – a/k/a the Perseid Meteor Showers. My only worry is that it’ll be cloudy on Wednesday (11^th) or Thursday (12^th) night, when ideally they should be peaking.

Believe me, I know how hard it can be to drag yourself outside once you’ve settled in for the evening. But the magic inherent in drinking in the vastness of the visible universe borders on the indescribable, and I want all of you to remember to indulge if you are so inclined.

It seems to me that we so easily and so often forget our relative unimportance in the grand scheme of things. It’s essential, in my opinion, that we remind ourselves of that insignificance every once in a while, especially when we’re on the brink of trashing this beautiful blue planet and potentially rendering it uninhabitable.

Are we truly incapable of raising our game and actually becoming thoughtful stewards of this planet? I’d like to think we’re still redeemable, but my hope is dimming.

Another view of Jupiter & Saturn with a bit of the Milky Way; Sky Guide app!

(T-109)

Skygazer

Yes, I know. Skygazer’s not technically a word, although I would argue it should be. Stargazer is a word, and it’s defined by dictionary.com (I’ll admit, not exactly the world’s premier lexicon, but it serves a purpose) as: 1. A person who stargazes, as an astronomer or astrologer. (Disregard that they used the word stargazes in the definition of stargazer. Ugh.) Beyond that egregiousness, this simplistic definition seems to be a resounding reason why skygazer as every bit as legitimate a word as stargazer.

As a surprise to no one, I’m sure, I think I am one.

First of all, I find the word stargazer to be far too restrictive in its parameters of what, exactly, is being gazed upon. I look at a lot more when I turn my gaze upward than just stars. Yes, I’m nit-picking. The definition above includes those who study astrology as stargazers. But astrology is primarily occupied with studying planets and other celestial bodies not technically stars.

As a skygazer, I not only look up to view stars and planets, the sun, the moon, etc. I also look up to observe a whole lot of space debris: dust, rocks, ice, chunks of all sorts of things whizzing through space and often, on a regular basis, encountering our atmosphere and creating a spectacle.

Reminders

I was reminded that skygazing has been something I ‘do’ (and have done for as long as I can remember) just today when I received a Facebook notification of a memory. It was from August 10^th, 2010, and I’d posted that I was staring up into the heavens in order to glimpse colors dancing across the sky that were associated with solar flares. But that was only the most recent in a fairly frequent parade of such reminders.

Seeing this post of mine from ten years ago made me realize that I do tend to look up a lot. I also noticed that I’ve written a decent number of posts involving meteor showers, comets, eclipses, and other celestial phenomena that involve objects or events in the sky that have nothing to do with stars per se.

So it’s settled. Skygazer is a word, a noun; and I am one.

Perseids

All of which leads me to remind you that the Perseids meteor showers will be taking place over the next two evenings. Specifically, between 11:00 p.m. tomorrow (Tuesday) night and 1:00 a.m. Wednesday the space debris lighting up the sky should be at its peak. It’s possible, if the sky is clear and the conditions are otherwise favorable that we could see between 60 and 75 meteors an hour. This article is slightly more in-depth.

Speaking from experience, it’s best to find a place to skygaze that’s as far away from ambient light as possible. I didn’t realize it, but it can take our eyes a good 45 minutes to fully adjust to the dark. It’s also far more comfortable if you can either sit in a chair that you can recline in and have your head supported, or simply find a place to safely lay out on a blanket. It’s essential to give yourself the time and peaceful patience that will allow you to expand your gaze widely in order to drink in as much sky with your eyes as possible.

A crick in your neck is not conducive to fruitful, contemplative, serious skygazing.

Get Lucky

I’m hoping the weather will hold and tomorrow night I’ll have the opportunity to watch bits of dust skitter across or into the atmosphere leaving a trail of sparkling light. If you happen to know you’ll be asleep by 11:00 p.m., give yourself a chance to get lucky anyway. Take a walk in the early evening and keep your eyes skyward. There’s a chance you may see some very long-tailed meteors as they skip off the edge of our atmosphere (instead of plunging through it). Those apparently occur before the main show of meteors, emanating from the darkest part of the sky, take center stage.

In the midst of all that we’re enduring right now, there’s something wonderful and perhaps hopeful in witnessing a phenomenon that humans have been observing for thousands of years. There are a lot bigger plot lines out there than just ours.

I’m an incorrigible skygazer. Join me.