Space Object of August: The Perseid Meteor Shower

Each Friday, the folks at Preachy will offer you something of a reflection for your weekend. This Friday, we present a Space Object of the Month, in which a Preachy co-editor invites you to learn how to use his telescope (with him):

Items I will try to find: The Perseid Meteor Shower

Why?: ’Cause … it’s pretty damn easy to see

When: August 12, 2021

The Perseids are an annual event. Each August, folks in the Northern Hemisphere need only look up for what is perhaps the best (easy) sky show of the year. You need no telescope, binoculars, or special equipment of any time to spot them. All you really need is, as our friends at EarthSky put it, a “wide open space.”

My fondest memory of the Perseids takes place in northern Wisconsin, where my family and I once set up beach chairs on the shores of a crystal clear lake to take in the performance. Happily, my family and I will be at an East Coast beach this year for the event, and though this showing will probably include many more randos than on the shores of that northern Wisconsin lake, it should still be pretty dope.