For night-sky watchers, August is the time for the annual Perseid meteor shower. This year’s light show for Thursday and Friday nights promises to be unusually memorable, weather permitting, according to Scott MacNeill, Director of the Frosty Drew Observatory in Charlestown.
“Usually it produces up to 80 to 100 meteors an hour,” he says. “But this year we could very likely see a Perseid outburst, of 200 plus meteors per hour.”
That’s because of Jupiter, MacNeill says. Every August the Earth passes through the debris stream of the comet Swift-Tuttle, producing the Perseid spectacle. This year Jupiter’s gravity is pushing more of that debris together, making for more meteors.
The Frosty Drew Observatory, on the edge of a wildlife refuge in Charlestown, is a great place to see the show, MacNeill says. He calls it the darkest spot in Rhode Island.
“We’re in a huge park, bordered with a wildlife refuge,” he says. “We have almost a 360-degree view of the sky, so it’s very wide open.”
Frosty Drew will be open for meteor viewing Thursday and Friday from dusk to dawn. MacNeill says hundreds of people came out for the event last year. He also says the best time for viewing will be after midnight, when the moon has set. Before that, though, the observatory will be open for viewing other aspects of the astronomical through the telescope. For the meteor show, MacNeill advises bringing a lounge chair or blanket. After that, he says, just lie back and look up.
