My Perseid birthday present

[bill_schubert]

I've had the questionable pleasure of having the Perseid celestial rock pile pass close to earth on my birthday every year for 67 (so far).

I say questionable as I have never seen a meteor from it.  Every damn year they talk about how wonderful it is, how many there will be, what time, 'this year there is no moon so it will be easy to see', 'this year it is a little closer so there will be a lot more'.

Never, not one meteor have I seen.

In defense of the pile of rocks their entry across the atmosphere seems to be visible at 2AM.  I am asleep at 2AM.  

But I was in the Navy and on watch at that time on my birthday.  I saw the damn Halley's comet exhibition the cosmos put on.

But not one damn meteor.

And now my life is so full of light pollution I'm lucky to be able to see the moon, much less the meteors.

So, if you're up in the middle of the night and look out and see a meteor, say hello for me.  I'll be asleep for another year.

Comments

[anais-pf.livejournal.com]

Happy birthday! I have seen many a falling star in mid-August. I had a friend in high school and college whose birthday is August 12th and we used to celebrate by driving out into the countryside and sprawling out on our backs in a pasture to watch for meteors. If the night was clear, we really could see about one per minute, or more. We were in the wilds of Michigan a few years ago for a family reunion, found a relatively light-free place and spread a blanket out for an hour or so and saw a bunch of them. The trick is to be looking straight up. Alas, it is really light-polluted here on Long Island so I mostly can't even see the major stars most nights. And it is cloudy here this week, with thunderstorms rolling through, so we are not even going to go outside to try to see any.