No matter where on Earth you're reading this blog post, you should be able to look up into the night sky this week and see some beautiful meteor action:

According to the best estimates, in 2010 the Earth is predicted to cut through the densest part of the Perseid stream sometime around 8:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on Thursday. The best window of opportunity to see the shower will be the late-night hours of Wednesday on through the first light of dawn on the morning of Thursday, and then again during the late-night hours of Aug. 12 into the predawn hours of Aug. 13. The Moon, whose bright light almost totally wrecked last year's shower, will have zero impact this year; unlike last year when it was just a few days past full, this year it will be new on Monday, Aug. 9, meaning that there will be absolutely no interference from it at all.
Yeah, seriously: thanks for not screwing up the party this year, Moon.

Excellent Perseid Meteor Shower Expected Aug. 11-13 (space.com)

Related: I did not know this, but the annual event is also known as "Tears of St. Lawrence," commemorating the "fiery tears" of a Christian martyr who was tortured by Romans and literally cooked to death on an iron stove in 258 A.D.:

The Judge had Lawrence burned alive on a gridiron. Why the Aug. 10 meteors should be named St. Lawrence's "tears," it is hard to say. For he was most brave in the midst of his torment. He is said to have exclaimed: "I am roasted enough on this side; turn me over and eat."
That grotesque history snippet from this article from TIME.... published in 1926.

Photo: A CC Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic licensed composite image of the 2009 Perseid meteor shower, by aresauburn.

Addendum: Boing Boing reader "Eck" says,

There's a longstanding theory that although Lawrence was martyred, the lore of his being cooked alive stems from a simple scribal error. The Latin for "he suffered" is "passus est"; drop one letter by mistake and you have "assus est" (he was roasted). (Link)

I hadn't know this before, but the theory was evidently first propounded by Pio Franchi de Cavalieri in "S[an] Lorenzo e il supplicio della graticola," Roemische Quartalschrift t[ome] XIV (1900). That, at least, is what Analecta Bollandia tomus XVIII has to say:

M[onsieur] P[io] F[ranchi] s'arrete a peine, et il a raison, a l'hypothese qui reduirait l'explication a une question de paleographie: on aurait lu assus est pour passus est. (Link, at 453.)

  • Boba Fett Diop

    I’ve read Day of the Triffids. There’s no way I’m looking up for the next couple of nights.

  • nemofazer

    Reading The Day of the Triffids as a kid always spoils this sort of thing for me.

  • Cowicide

    Details via article:

    The best window of opportunity to see the shower will be the late-night hours of Wednesday on through the first light of dawn on the morning of Thursday, and then again during the late-night hours of Aug. 12 into the predawn hours of Aug. 13.

    The Moon, whose bright light almost totally wrecked last year’s shower, will have zero impact this year; unlike last year when it was just a few days past full, this year it will be new on Monday, Aug. 9, meaning that there will be absolutely no interference from it at all.

    Excellent!

  • Mike

    For those of you who can’t get away from the bright city lights, there’s always Flickr:

    http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=perseids

    I’ll be trekking out from Los Angeles, a few hours north, so I can catch the shower again this year. It’s really spectacular and if you haven’t caught a meteor shower in a while (or ever), I highly recommend it.

    Bring along your favorite mp3 player with some appropriate stargazing music, a blanket, and a friend or two. Really worth it.

    • Anonymous

      Mike!
      This sounds crazy, but I am a student in LA and I would love to see about going with you and your group outside of LA, right now I don’t have a way to go out to Joshua Tree or anything, so when I read your comment I thought that maybe I could go with you!
      Thanks
      Ben
      thebengordon(at) gmail.com

    • PaulR

      Even better, make a party of it:
      For years, some good friends of mine used to have our “Annual Star Meet”.
      (Yes, the acronym works out to “ASM”; we were/are all computer geeks, and had mostly met when playing Pyroto Mountain, or via Tim & Ord’s other BBS, SASSy.)

      Just at around the the time the Perseids would peak, we’d drive up to one of the group’s member’s cottage, just North of Montreal. The agenda was simple: 1) have a potluck dinner, 2) go lie down on the dock or lawn or take the pédalo, and go “Oooh!” and “Ahhhh” for a few hours..

      Even when the sky was overcast, a good time would be had by all. We were all pretty good cooks.

  • johnphantom

    Cooked to death? Damn that sounds particularly nasty.

    Psst… don’t tell the CIA or Gitmo about this…

    I will be watching out for the shower, though – thanks for the heads up.

  • Bulone

    I seriously doubt I would be able to see this from my balcony. Those damn eye straining lights from office buildings lit the night sky almost like day time.

  • CpnCodpiece

    Don’t worry I found out, the answer, unfortunately, is not really. But if you look towards the northern horizon you should be able to see an unusually high number of meteorites.

  • TheMadLibrarian

    Uhh… I don’t think that’s a composite picture of any meteor activity. The streaks are time lapse star trails around Polaris, and that bright blob off to the lower light looks like a terrestrial light source of some type. Meteor trails wouldn’t curve, and in all probability would be at a distinct angle to the star trails.

    • Anonymous

      I’m pretty sure they know that, but it’s generally easier to get something like that than professional photos of meteor showers, plus, it looks cool.

  • iambryan

    For all your Calgary based readers… Tonight (August 11) is the last night of Milky Way Days at the University of Calgary’s Rothney Astrophysics Observatory (http://www.ucalgary.ca/rao/). Admittance can be gained for a donation to the RAO’s educational program.

    The observatory will be opening it’s gates at 22:00 and closes again at 0200. Hopefully the skies will be clear for a portion of the night. Check the cloud forecast here: http://www.cleardarksky.com/c/RothneyALkey.html?1

    There will be telescopes available (not sure how many) for those in attendance.

    I hope to see you there.
    Cheers

  • Anonymous

    Here in Los Angeles we are presently cursed with an offshore marine layer that does a really good job of flowing in and blanketing much of SoCal during the night either totally or at least in gauzy goodness, thereby shooting to hell your confident assertion that everyone no matter where they are should be able to look up and get some meteor action.

    • thefinder

      Same here in Sonoma County, Ca., north of S.F. This is the coolest summer on record. The fog comes in every evening and can last as long a 1 in the afternoon. The grapes are rotting and the cottonwood trees are turning yellow already. There’s still water in the creeks (definitely not normal). But I have the memory of watching many Perseid meteor showers in the past. The most spectacular one I watched was on the east side of the Rockies on the Blackfoot reservation.

    • Antinous / Moderator

      I’m in Palm Springs. We had a cloud once. I think it was in 2003.

  • CpnCodpiece

    Is it possible to see these in the Southern Hemisphere?

  • Bevatron Repairman

    ANd for such wit, St. Lawrence is the patron saint of comedians.

    • Viadd

      St. Lawrence is also the patron saint of cooks.

  • teknocholer

    St. Peter greeted Lawrence at the Pearly Gates, saying, “Lawrence, well done!”

  • Apreche

    Can I even see it in NYC where I’m lucky if I can see a single star due to city lights? Will it really be that bright?

    • Anonymous

      If the movies I’ve seen are correct, you’ll have no trouble seeing meteors. Fro the best luck, just watch the Empire State Building and/or the Statue of Liberty. Your biggest problem will be shockwaves and falling rubble. Stay away from taxis and news stands.