The Meteor Shower

So tonight is the night of the Perseid Meteor shower. My husband and I spent over an hour on our deck watching them streak across the sky. Its the first real astronomical event we have watched since we moved out here. I remember last year we were sitting in the backyard of the place we were renting. We had a little fire bowl (the poor thing only held two split logs at a time). We had spent an hour explaining to three separate neighbours what we were doing outside at that hour (it was only 11pm), then we got to breath some second hand smoke from bad cigarettes as three of our neighbours lit up on their deck. A siren from a police car shattered the tranquility of the night. We could hear the people four doors down having a party. But the worst part of all, was that there were so many streetlights that we only got to see the brightest of meteors. We got rather disheartened and went inside and instead looked up meteor shower photographs on the internet.

This year it was a totally different experience! We went out at about the same time this year, 11pm (2300hrs) and sat out on the deck to enjoy the show. There was not a sound to be heard. No cars, no sirens, no parties. Quiet, the only interruption to the silence was the occasional tap of claws on the deck as our dogs wandered around, wondering why on earth we are not curled up in the nice comfy bed. I could hear my husbands light breathing beside me. The second thing I noticed was how dark it was, we have an industrial plant near the town, but its soft lights only lit up a section of the sky south of us. In the North, East and West the sky was filled with thousands of stars! Far more than I had ever seen in the city. I breathed deeply and commented about the difference to my husband, who agreed with me on how different things were out there. We relished the quiet and the amazing view our new home offered us.

We sat out there, watching as red and white and green meteors shot across the sky, leaving the trail of light behind them before vanishing into the darkness again. While we looked he pointed out several stars to me. In his earlier days he had been an avid star watcher and has a significant knowledge base. He showed me above a set a bright stars a light that seemed to move slightly, it was a moon! We watched the light from the international space station slip through the sky, along with several satellites. Around Cassiopeia he showed me where you could just make out some binary stars. When he mentioned that they were two stars devouring each other I asked him if they were still there (seeing as the lights we see in the sky are millions of years old). He said they were not.

Its amazing to think that the light that shines upon us tonight is no longer in existence, that one day the stars we know, have named and make up our various constellations are only a memory of what once was. Its incredibly difficult for me to wrap my head around how immense the universe is! I can understand how my ancestors saw the stars as Gods, and dwelling places of great heroes! And even in this modern age, where science and technology has helped to explain what the stars are, what creates meteor showers, I find them no less magical than our distant relatives did thousands of years ago.

Yours humbly

The Redneck Pagan.