Hey, Look Up!

Ha, ha; made you look; and anyway, hay is for horses. I can remember pulling pranks like that as a kid. When I was working as a vendor at the Astrodome we would point to an imaginary object on the roof just to see how many folks would stop and fall for the gag.

“Hey, Look Up!” would never work were it not for the remote possibility that something might actually be worth looking at. You might hear the music of Peter and the Wolf playing in your mind; a cautionary reminder never to cry “Wolf” unless there really is one.

Mom used to get us ready for school early in the morning in order to facilitate her getting out the door and on the road to be at work on time. We would postpone and drag our feet while trying to make those last few minutes of comfort under the covers last. One morning in particular she was excited to the point of bursting over as she rustled and jostled us awake. It was even earlier than normal, the skies still dark outside as I reluctantly obeyed the voice jabbering away, something about meteors in the back yard.

It took a while to rub the sleep from my eyes; but I put on some jeans and shoes so I could go outside and “look up”. The sky was unusually clear for Houston and it became obvious why mom wanted to share the experience with us. Meteors were cascading, not dropping here and there, cascading from the sky, not one or two every hour; but so many at a time that it was hard to believe. I’d heard that a good meteor shower would make it appear as if they were falling off an invisible umbrella; that about covers what I was seeing.

I brought that memory forward, having been prompted by my daughter. I get interesting calls from Bonnie every once in a while; this was one of them. “Dad, what year did you see all those meteors; was it November of 1966?” I had to think for a few moments, 40 years having gone by. I’d shared my recollections of the event on more than one occasion, Bonnie having a keen interest in such things.

“That’s about right, why do you ask?” Bonnie went on to explain that she met a fellow who’d taken pictures of “The Great Leonid Meteor Shower of November 17, 1966”. He told her how extraordinary that meteor shower had been; recording 10-15 meteors per second on average and as many as 40 per second at its peak. That’s a phenomenal number when you consider how excited most folks get if they see a single shooting star streak across the night sky.

I took the time to Google ( link via title bar ) that date and read several articles which confirmed my memories as having been note worthy. One article mentioned the Tempel-Tuttle comet that had everyone looking up as it impacted on Jupiter. Telescopes around the world aimed and focused to capture the event, a spectacular splash of color as celestial objects collided for all to see. I suppose it’s not so foolish after all, looking up.