August Skies!

Have you ever had one of those warm summer nights when there was nothing to do, and you didn't have any money to do anything anyway... And even if there was something to do, your folks wouldn't let you? Maybe you used to hang out with your buddies under the lamp at the end of the street, or maybe you used to climb up onto the hood of the family Ford alongside the house, lean back against the windshield and look up at the stars and wonder, as Huck Finn once said, "...whether they was made, or only just happened." And maybe, too, you got real lucky and spotted a few shooting stars! That's what dreams are made of folks!
Meteor showers

Meteors! They happen all the time, and there are even certain times of the year when we have great showers of them, events occurring when the Earth passes through a cluttered region of the orbital path of a comet. (Say that five times real fast!) And this year, on the night of August 11th or 12th, if the weather holds out, we're in for a treat... a REAL TREAT!

On August 13, 2007 the peak of the Perseid Meteor Shower will occur, one of the year's most spectacular shows. The Perseids are a particularly reliable meteor shower - very old and impressive. Since medieval times, the Perseids have been known as "the tears of St. Lawrence",since they dependably show up every year at the time of Lawrence's feastday on the 10th. In 36 A.D., the Chinese recorded that "...more than 100 meteors flew thither in the morning." But alas, not hither.

Nonetheless, the Perseids generally average about fifty 'shooting stars' per hour. This is also the night of the new Moon, so skies will be good and dark. Look toward the north-east after 10 p.m., as the constellation Perseus rises above the horizon. The Perseids are remnants of Comet Swift-Tuttle, first seen in the USA during the Civil War from the rooftop of the Naval Observatory in Washington, by a curious little man named Horace Tuttle, who never worked officially at the Naval Observatory, but hauled his little comet-seeking telescope up to the Observatory roof night after night. Enjoy the show.
The Seventh Night of the Seventh Moon:

August 19th, 2007. This is the Seventh Night of the Seventh Moon, according to the Chinese calendar. This is the night that thousands of magpies will form a bridge over the 'silver river' between the Earth and Heaven, and re-unite two young lovers.
Here's the story:

Many, many years ago, the seventh daughter of the Jade Emperor peeked through the clouds that separate Heaven from Earth (although this was forbidden) and spied a young cowherd who'd sold himself into slavery to get enough money to bury his father. She was smitten, and with the help of her six sisters whom she swore to secrecy, she travelled to the Earth, got a Chinese scholar-tree to act as matchmaker, and married the young man. Then she asked her sisters to help her make a bolt of beautiful brocade, and with it bought her husband's freedom from his master. They had two children. A boy and a girl.

Well, as these stories usually go, Dad eventually found out about things and wasn't very happy. The Jade Emperor demanded that she come home, or all sorts of bad things would happen. She obeyed, and just to see that it wouldn't happen again, he put a silver river between Heaven and Earth that no one could cross.

As you can imagine, by and by, the Jade Emperor softened with age and eventually came around. Sort of. He finally agreed that his seventh daughter could visit her husband and children by climbing down the bridge of magpies to the Earth. But only on the Seventh Night of the Seventh Moon. Which is August 19th this year.