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It’s not every day that you get a chance to wish upon 50 shooting stars in an hour. But the Montauk Observatory Inc. is promoting just that with a sponsored viewing of the Perseid meteor shower, an annual spectacle that is visible to the naked eye, on Saturday night.
The viewing will take place at the Montauk County Park around 9 p.m. The event is free, and those interested are encouraged to bring their own lawn chairs, picnic baskets and personal telescopes for the event. Astronomers will be there to answer questions.
Sean Tvelia, a professor of physical science at Suffolk Community College, will host the viewing with his colleague, astronomer Mike Inglis.
While the Perseid meteor shower can be viewed anywhere, Montauk has a particularly “great sky,” said Mr. Tvelia—probably the darkest on Long Island.
“And the darker the sky you have, the easier to see the more dim objects at night through the telescope,” he said.
Eventually, the Montauk Observatory wants to have a permanent observatory at the Montauk County Park, said Susan Harder, one of the members of the observatory’s board. It would be located behind the “bunk house,” a building behind Third House on the park grounds, she said. The observatory hopes to break ground in the spring, but the group still needs to complete its fundraising for the project. All the educational programs it offers are free.
Ms. Harder said the observatory will roll out its “professional grade 20-inch Meade telescope for the first time in several years” at the Perseid meteor shower event.
A meteor shower, explained Mr. Tvelia, originates from a trail of dust that a comet leaves behind. It is visible when the Earth passes through the trail of dust. As the particles fall through the earth’s atmosphere, they are heated up by friction, which causes them to glow, he said.
The Perseid meteor shower follows the Swift-Tuttle comet. The actual shower lasts two to three days, he said, but it peaks for a couple of hours.
Meteor showers aren’t unusual. There’s one coming up in November, the Leonids, which is similar the Perseid shower, he said.
“The Perseids are one of the better of the meteor showers because they’re the most consistent,” Mr. Tvelia “It’s almost like a falling star every minute. A lot of wishes.”
