Good morning…

Were you out on your back porch last night around 9:00 pm watching for the Geminids meteor shower? The eyes of our family were searching the sky for the unusual occurrence. One of our kids asked, “What is a meteor shower?” and we all made some guesses. “Lots of shooting stars all at once,” was the best answer of our bunch. Of course, I came in from the unseasonably mild, mid-December dark and went straight to my computer to research the true answer.

Here is what I discovered: “A meteor shower is a spike in the number of meteors or ‘shooting stars’ that streak through the night sky. Most meteor showers are spawned by comets. As a comet orbits the Sun it sheds an icy, dusty debris stream along its orbit. If Earth travels through this stream, we will see a meteor shower. Although the meteors can appear anywhere in the sky, if you trace their paths, the meteors in each shower appear to “rain” into the sky from the same region. Meteor showers are named for the constellation that coincides with this region in the sky, a spot known as the radiant. For instance, the radiant for the Leonid meteor shower is in the constellation Leo. The Perseid meteor shower is so named because meteors appear to fall from a point in the constellation Perseus.” (https://stardate.org/nightsky/meteors)

My guess is that the radiant of the Geminids meteor shower is the constellation Gemini. Isn’t it fun to learn something new?

We waited and we chatted. We chatted and we waited. Those of us fortunate enough to be looking in the right direction at the right moment saw one “shooting star.” Those facing the opposite way, lost in a heated discussion, missed seeing the single star “fall” across the sky. It did not take long before we all came inside from the less-than-hoped-for experience. Sometimes we expect much more than we receive, but in the process we always learn something new.

…learn to revere the Lord your God always, Deuteronomy 14:23b (NIV),

Sue

P.S. If you missed watching for the meteor shower last night, you are in luck. I just learned that the most reliable meteor shower of the year is the Geminids and it is characterized by a multi-colored display, 65% being white, 26% yellow, and the remaining 9% blue, red and green. The peak of the shower this year runs December 13th through December 14th. Might you join me outside tonight as we learn to always revere the Lord our God , the Maker of this expansive creation?