The Sky is Falling! The Sky is Falling!

By Aaron B. Clevenson, ALCor

”From following walls I never lift my eye,
Except at night to places in the sky
Where showers of charted meteors fly.”
- Robert Frost

Welcome to the 7th article on Astronomical League Club certifications. This month we will travel with the falling stars: The Meteors.

Meteors are usually tiny bits of dust and grit ejected from comets as they warm from a close pass by the sun. As the Earth travels in its annual journey around the sun we encounter these dust trails. Those particles unlucky enough to be caught by the gravitation of the earth come crashing through the upper atmosphere at thousands of miles per hour. This reentry usually results in a fiery death, but makes for an often-spectacular show for those of us who are captives of Earth’s gravity.

The Astronomical League (AL) has a certification program for those who diligently watch for and record meteors. This is probably the easiest of all of the clubs in the AL. No equipment required, nothing to research, nothing to search for, you just watch. Certificates are given for 6-hour blocks up to 36 hours, when the pin is awarded. Observations must be done in one-hour chunks. The data you need to collect are: Date of Observation, Time of Observation, Location, Your Name, Cloudiness, Altitude & Azimuth of Observation, Comments on each Observation, and Meteor Details. These details include: Time, Magnitude, Shower membership, Color, Speed, Train, and Comments.

My advice is dress warmly (very warmly), take a comfortable chair (not too comfortable), a star chart, a red flashlight, a notebook, and a pen. Then sit back and watch the skies. The darker the site the better, and be sure to let your eyes dark-adjust. I have had some hours where I saw no meteors, but even this is important information. I find the most productive time is in the evening hours before a large meteor shower. The shower itself is often too hectic to keep adequate records. The sky is not really falling, only a very tiny part of it! Join us next month for the Messier certifications. Happy Hunting.