새전북신문

[잉그리드 전주살이] The Perseid Meteor Shower

기사 작성: Ingrid 전주대 교수 - 2016.08.25 15:17

I love stars. I like looking at the sky at night. Probably started since the time I learned to sing “Twinkle twinkle little star”. I think stars are pretty cool. But then I had an advantage over lots of other people because I grew up in a small town with very little light pollution so I had a pretty good view of the stars at night. I could see the Milky Way easily in winter. I hadn’t realized that so many people had never really seen the stars at night. I mean the sky that is chock full of stars, not just the few stars you can see in Jeonju. So when I read that the Perseid meteor shower was expected to be its best in twenty years I was very interested in seeing it. I have seen falling stars from the Perseids before in Canada, and just the occasional falling star whenever. I like seeing them. It is a short, sweet line of light that flares and disappears. These are not indeed falling stars or shooting stars. They are the meteors that fall of the Comet Swift-Tuttle that passes by the Earth. When they hit our atmosphere they burn up.

The best nights were August 11 and 12. Those were the nights of the volleyball tournament. I tried to look for them when I was in Inje in Gangwando but there was too much light. So I made a plan for the 13th. With my friend Eunha I loaded up my car with blankets, food, drink, lights, a tarp and both dogs. We drove to a mountain outside of Kimje where Eunha’s brother was building a house right near the top of the mountain. There were building supplies around and one of the neighbours suggested we use some insulation to sleep on. So we spread out the blankets and pillows, ate dinner and then laid down and watched the stars. It was difficult at first because the moon was still out in all her glory. So we chatted while waiting for her to disappear and a mist gathered around us, dampening the blankets. I think it was wannabe clouds forming, but the biggest problem of the evening was the clouds in the sky. It wasn’t thick, and there would be holes scattered here and there as the gentle cool wind pushed it past us. I saw my first shooting star at midnight, and proceeded to nap on and off and stargaze in between naps. I saw six more shooting stars ? not as many as the possible 200 an hour but better than nothing. The humidity reduced visibility too. The best time was when I woke up at 4 am to a cloudless sky and saw the biggest one then.

My dogs Adam and Tasha enjoyed being up on the mountain in much cooler weather. I let Adam run around with just his battery operated light collar on but Tasha I tied to an icebox so she wouldn’t run around and get into trouble. She is still young and not particularly well trained yet, which is my fault. She spent most of the night on guard, growling and watching in every direction, until I gave up watching the skies at 4:40 am. Then she crawled up beside me and we slept until 6am. Then we had to clean up and get out of the way of the men building the house. It was the third time I had ever slept under the stars, not in a tent, the first for Eunha. Eunha slept most of the night and didn’t see any falling stars but it was still a new experience for her and she appreciated it. And the dogs certainly enjoyed themselves. I think their extra snacks helped. I didn’t feel nervous sleeping out in the open like that because the dogs would warn us of anything dangerous. And if it rained, we could just pile everything into the car. It was a wonderful night out for all of us. We drove back in the morning, back into the heat of Jeonju. After breakfast in a fast food restaurant, Eunha went back to work, the dogs and I went home, washed the blankets and went back to bed, tired from stargazing.

많이 보는 기사

[잉그리드 전주살이] The Perseid Meteor Shower

새전북 만평

전주제일고 연극부 ‘제스트’, 제29회 대한민국청소년연극제 금상·우수연기상

국제와이즈멘 전주백제클럽, 수해복구 봉사

국가유산청 우리고장 국가유산활용사업 ‘어이~ 유생(儒生)! 유생(乳生)!’프로그램 오수면 초등학생 참여