ROGUE WANDERER: Possible angels and chasing the Perseids

ROGUE WANDERER: Possible angels and chasing the Perseids

Published 7:35 am Thursday, August 20, 2026

Last Wednesday was established order, that’s, till after darkish.

It was Aug. 12, the height evening to witness a bathe of meteors nearest the constellation Perseis, a Greek mythological hero, within the northern sky. The Perseids make their play yearly at the moment. What made this 12 months’s taking pictures present optimum was an absence of moonglow. Laziness threatened to throw a block (soccer’s coming). The considered preparing and going someplace turns into extra of an effort because the orbits roll. But, on a whim, and never ever eager to be the stick-in-mud, I texted Lane to see if he wished to hunt meteors with me. I shouldn’t have been stunned when he replied that it gave the impression of enjoyable. We formulated our technique.

He met me right here and we drove Giovanni the Honda north to our former, relatively unsuccessful, location from just a few years in the past — River’s Edge Park by the fish hatchery. Oh, we’d had a beautiful time stargazing and watching eyes watch us at nighttime that turned out to be deer. But meteors had been troublesome viewing.

As we rolled to the doorway, we seen the gate with an indication saying the park closed at nightfall. We both hadn’t seen the signal earlier than or we’d chosen to disregard it. I didn’t just like the notion of getting locked in for the evening, so I tethered Giovanni exterior the gate and we walked in. Lane shined his flashlight on the bottom to forestall us from spreading the ever-present cow blanket over undesirable matter. Deer had made their omnipresence recognized.

Then, from the darkness behind us, a person’s voice mentioned, “What are you looking for?” I turned to see a stocky gentleman with a weapon-sized strolling workers coming towards us. He had come up from the river. We remained calm and Lane defined we had been there to watch the meteor showers. The man went on to elucidate that the park does shut and a cop would quickly come round asking us to maneuver on.

We’d seen the lone automotive parked. The classic mannequin belonged to our customer. It may need served double responsibility as his residence, I don’t know. He went on to offer us with particular directions for a wonderful viewing spot simply off the hatchery parking zone. Then, added ominously, “The only thing is … snakes crawl at night.” He might have checked out me when he mentioned it. It can be rattlesnakes to which he referred — a side of nature for which I’ve nice respect and didn’t want to encounter shut up.

As we parted, we thanked him, launched ourselves, and he gave his title as Dave. We shook fingers. He instructed us he hoped we’d see an entire lot of meteors.

His instructions proved faultless, and we discovered a wide-open clearing and place close to a bench to unfold the UCB, remembering his admonition, “snakes crawl at night.”

As we lie there, the sky darkening and our eyes adjusting, we started to make out the faint wisp of the Milky Way. Soon we had been exclaiming, “Ooh and ohhhh, that was a bright one!” Had we stayed till no less than midnight, we’d have seen extra — as much as 100 per hour. As normal, time encroached on us as the true enemy — much more venomous than snakes. We had been proud of the ten or twelve meteors that shot by our visual field, and between occasions we marveled on the huge portion of creation overhead we hardly ever acknowledge.

We mused to one another that perhaps Dave had been an angel — Angel Dave together with his peaceable, useful method. He drove off within the previous automotive, so perhaps not.

I did some digging with NASA’s assist to make clear what a meteor is. It’s an area rock, a fraction from an asteroid or comet, on a daily orbit coming into the earth’s environment at a terrific velocity (25,000 to 160,000 mph) and burning up. The stalwart items which are massive and hard sufficient, make it by and land on earth someplace as meteorites. A meteoroid is an area rock orbiting alongside in house, minding its personal enterprise avoiding earth’s gravitational pull.

So, while you want upon a star, it’s not only a hunk of nugatory rock you’re setting your hopes on, it’s one small particle of an infinite design value considering.

Correction from final column: It was Ocean World we visited in Crescent City, not Coastal World. Thank heaven for ever-vigilant readers.

Peggy Dover is a contract author/writer. Reach her at peggydover@gmail.com.