Free Republic

The year's biggest and best meteor shower is upon us, and NASA officials are urging Americans to flee the city this weekend. The Perseid meteor shower, set to peak from the evening of Sunday through Monday, could produce 50 to 75 shooting stars per hour. But the US space agency warned that if you live in an urban area, light pollution could dim the cosmic show. Skygazers should head outside between 12am and 5:30am to see the meteors streak through a pre-dawn sky. This peak period occurs when there is almost no moon and the sky is especially dark, providing...

Every August, just when many people go vacationing in the country where skies are dark, the best-known meteor shower makes its appearance. As with many celestial phenomena, there's some curious lore surrounding the shooting stars of the annual Perseid meteor shower. Laurentius, a Christian deacon, is said to have been martyred by the Romans in 258 AD on an iron outdoor stove. It was in the midst of this torture that Laurentius supposedly cried out: "I am already roasted on one side and, if thou wouldst have me well cooked, it is time to turn me on the other." It...