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Entertainment Topics
Summer Celebrations 3: Family Fun on Little-Known Holidays
August 9 — Perseid Meteor Shower
The heat had just begun to ease one August night a few years ago when a friend
and I set out to watch falling stars. We took our kids, two blankets and a Japanese
student staying with my family. We drove away from the gray skies above our town
until we were in the middle of farmlands. Here we could have stars in our
eyes.
But where should we stop? There weren’t any public parks, so we pulled
over and spread out our blankets on the sloping shoulder of the road. As our
eyes adjusted to the darkness, three things happened: We began to see the flare
of streaking meteors, our Japanese student fell asleep, and passing pickup trucks
began to slow down to find out why people were stretched out on blankets by
the side of a lonely country road.
We left before local police were called in, but not before being entranced
by the beauty of the Perseid
Meteor Shower.
If you’d like to venture out under the night sky to watch for shooting
stars, go out well after dusk and look toward the northeast. Find the “W”
in the sky — that’s Cassiopeia, a good point of reference. Perseus
is next to it. That’s the best area to watch for meteors.
Here’s what I’d suggest for your Meteor Shower Kit:
-
a blanket to put under you. You’ll want to lie on the ground
or a lawn chair to keep from craning your neck. If it’s chilly, take
a sleeping bag.
-
a map of the summer night sky. You can pick out constellations
as you wait for meteors. Your local library should have a book with a star
map.
-
a small flashlight. The beam carries far enough into the sky to
help you point out stars to your kids.
-
bug spray. Just this once you can forget the sunscreen.
-
good imaginations. Seeing dogs, bears and swans in clusters of
stars can be hard. I’ve posted a guide
to four of the summer ones (plus my own strange interpretations of them).
But why see only the pictures that ancient civilizations imagined? Your child
can create her own. After all, making a constellation is just doing dot-to-dot.
Download my Constellation
Maker (pdf) worksheet and see what she can imagine.
Then later tonight, wake up the kids and sneak out under the sparkling canopy
of an August night sky. It will fill your eyes with starlight and your hearts
with wonder.
— Bruce Van Patter
Do you have thoughts, questions, advice on this topic? Post your stories and comments in the forum for other parents to respond to. Enter the forum now.
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