<< Back 12/18/02 The Naturalist's Corner By Don Hendershot I missed my shower Saturday morning. In fact, I missed all three of the most notable meteor showers this year — the Perseids in August, the Leonids in November and now the Geminids. One I may have slept through, but one I definitely remember getting up in the pre-dawn blackness, looking at the cloud covered sky and heading back to the sheets like I did last Saturday. I got hooked on meteors way back in college. A group of us took canoes and jonboats to Cheniere (pronounced “shinny”) Lake, in West Monroe, La. one dark December night. We paddled out, into the darkness to get away from the light pollution. We found an open spot in the middle of the lake, lashed our boats together, got comfortable, using blankets, pillows and sleeping bags and settled in for the show. We weren’t disappointed. The skies were clear and burning streaks of light rained down on us for two to three hours. The show started slowly with the occassional flare shooting across the heavens amid collegiate attempts at repartee. Then something amazing happened. As the streaks quickened, the chatter slowed. As meteors blazed, nearly two a minute, there was complete silence. No small feat where about 12 college students are concerned. Since that time I have had the opportunity to watch meteor showers from bare, unlighted oil platforms in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico and from the peaks of Western North Carolina. They still fill me with that same quiet awe. As you might imagine, meteor showers have been getting people’s attention for a long time. One of the earliest known records is one from the Perseids, recorded in China in 36 A.D. Because of the absence of written history, North American accounts of meteors cannot compare with ancient Chinese and European accounts. But petroglyphs, stick notchings, pictures on animal skins and oral tradition leave little doubt that the fiery streaks were noticed. Some tribes seemed to fear the meteors and/or think of them as harbingers of bad news. Other tribes believed meteors to be people’s souls headed to the afterlife or merely stars that suddenly moved from one place to another. A spectacular Leonid shower in 1833 was recorded by Native Americans and settlers alike. Some reports estimate that as many as 100,000 meteors per hour raced across the night skies. The shower was especially productive in the southeastern portion of North America. Legend has it that Cherokee elders warned that the “Atsil Tluntutsis,” or fire-panthers, were a sign that the whites in Washington and closer to the Cherokee Nation could not be trusted. The infamous Trail of Tears was not far behind. And for all you “parrot-heads” out there, it was the Leonids that inspired the 1930s song “Stars Fell on Alabama,” written by Mitchell Parish and Frank Perkins and recorded by Jimmy Buffet and others. Historians and astronomers debate whether it was the 1833 version of the Leonids or a later, 1866 storm. While the Perseid and Leonid showers are eons old, the Gemids are relative necomers to the Earth’s skies. They were discovered in 1862 but their origin wasn’t uncovered until 1983. Most meteors are created when debris is melted off comets when their orbit takes them near the sun. The comet of origin for the Perseids is Swift-Tuttle, and Tempel-Tuttle is responsible for the Leonids. Scientists were confounded because they could find no corresponding comet for the upstart Geminids. Finally in 1983 NASA’s astronomical satellite discovered an object moving in the same orbit as the Geminids. This object, which is the origin of the Geminid meteors, turned out to be an asteroid (3200 Phaethon) rather than a comet. The names for these meteor showers refers to the constellation nearest where the shooting stars originate: Perseus, Leo and Gemini. If you’re in need of a soul-cleansing shower, check your calendar for next August, November and/or December. If you have a clear night and can find a place away from too much light pollution, the heavens will bathe you in the mysteries of the universe. (Don Hendershot can be reached at don@smokymountainnews.com)