The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1928-08-07
WATCH HEAVENS
FOR SHOWER OF
SHOOTING STARS
Meteoritic Phenomenon
| Will Be Visible Satur-
/. day Night.

WASHINGTON. Aug. Watch
the northeastern sky Saturday
night. and even into the early
morning hours CT Sunday. Then
you will be rewarded by a sight OF
some of the meteors, or shooting
stars" of the famous Perseid
shower.
But though it is called a shower
one should not expect anything ap-
preaching shower Of rain. True.
there have been showers of meteors
in the past, when the entire sky
has been covered with thousands OF
them, like the ribs of a gigantic UNI
trella. Such a shower is very rare,
)nd no one can tell when one will
again ocSor.
On>aI-aost any clear night care
FIJI watcher can probably see half
a dozen meteors flash across the
sky in the course of an hour. At
the time of the Perseids, however.
this number may greatly increase,
so that one can easily see an aver
age of one a minute, or evenmore
This month they will be easily Wis
ible because the moon will be out
of the way, and Saturday night
will be dark. When there is a full
moon in the sky at the time of the
shower. it's brilliance, while not
making the meteors completely in
visible, at least makes them less less
conspicuous.
Swarm Around Sun
The name of the perseid shower
comes from the location of what
astronomers call the radiant. That
Is. the ordinary casual Ineteors that
one sees on any night may float
across the sky in any direction. The
meteorS of a shower, however, all
seem to radiate from particular
part of the sky. In case of the Au-
gust shower, the radiant or point
from which they seem to come, is
in the constellation of Perseus,
which can be seen high in the
northwestern sky after midnight
Actually, the meteors are not
coming from a point. They are
moving in parallel paths. In the
distance these paths seem to come
together, in the same way that the
tracks of railroad seem to come
to a point in the distance, even
though they are actually the same
distance apart at all places.
These meteors travel around the
sun in a huge swarm. Probably all
parts of this path along which they
travel are densely populated with
them, but some parts more than
others. In August, the earth in its
own travels around the sun, crosses
the path of the meteors. Then they
fall into the earth's atmosphere, but
the friction generated by the fric-
up in a flash of light that we may
see. When the earth happens to
cross the meteoric orbit at the same
time as one of the very dense &C
cumulations, they are unusually
numerous, and shower such as
that of some past years is the re-
suit.
FORM Meteor CIuD
One thing about the study of
meteors that makes it of interest
is that it is one of the few branches
of astronomy in which serious study
can be made without the aid of
telescope. Under the guidance Of
Prof. Charles P. Olivier, of the
Flower Observatory of the Uni
versity of Pennsylvania at Phila-
delphia, hundreds OF these amateur
astronomers reports regularly on the
meteors they observe. They are
gathered together into an organiza-
ton called the American Meteor
Society. AS there are many parts
of the country where mono of their
members are located. Professor
Olivier is anxious to receive more
reports from these volunteer OBJ
servers. He has announced that he
will be glad to receive any inquiries.