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The Dog Days of Summer & Perseids Meteor Showers
"🎶 Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are,
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky."
or for those who would like a syllabic challenge with scientific flair ...
"🎵 Scintillate, scintillate, globule vivific,
Fain would I fathom thy nature specific.
Loftily poised in the ether capacious,
Strongly resembling a gem carbonaceous."
~ Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, Jane Taylor (1806)
This favorite children’s tune about the night sky is now often sung to the French melody Ah! vous dirai-je, maman, first published in 1761 and later arranged by several composers—including Mozart, who wrote twelve delightful variations on it.
Star gazers know that “twinkling,” or scintillation, happens because distant stars appear as tiny points of light, easily disturbed by Earth’s restless atmosphere. Turbulence high above can act like a lens or prism, bending and diverting the light’s path, creating that magical sparkle.
August is a fine month for stargazing. As the sweltering Dog Days of summer draw to a close, the Perseid meteor showers arrive—one of the year’s most anticipated celestial displays. Associated with the comet Swift–Tuttle, these “shooting stars” seem to stream from the constellation Perseus and will peak this year on August 11th, 12th, and 13th.
When a meteor enters our atmosphere, its fiery trail tells a colorful story. Different elements within the meteor emit different hues as they burn: iron glows bright yellow, silicates blush red, and copper creates that unmistakable green flash often seen in the trails of brighter meteors.
This dark-sky tartan captures that wonder, with shimmering streaks of color against a soft night glow—perfect for kilted star gazers of all ages. And of course, when you see that first twinkle in the evening sky or a bright streak across the heavens… don’t forget to make a wish. 🖤 💙 ❤️ 💛 ⭐⭐ ⭐ 🌠 🌠 🌠 🔭
Twinkle twinkle little star ...
The Dog Days of summer, generally reckoned to begin July 3rd and ending August 11th, coincides with the rising of the Dog Star, Sirius, in the constellation Canis Major.
Coinciding with the end of the Dog Days is also the beginning of the Perseids Meteor showers. The Perseids are so called because the point from which they appear to hail (called the radiant) lies in the constellation Perseus. In the years when these meteor showers coincide with a thin crescent moon, the views can be spectacular - up to 70 to 200 meteors per hour.
Sirius, a binary and possibly ternary star system, is the brightest star in the sky, and is also the star that "twinkles" or scintillates the most in the night sky.
The phrase “Dog Days” conjures up the hottest, most sultry days of summer though this is coincidental to its original meaning. For the ancient Egyptians, Sirius appeared just before the season of the Nile’s flooding, so the Dog Star was used as a “watchdog” for that event. Since its rising also coincided with a time of extreme heat, the connection with hot, sultry weather was made for all time:
“Dog Days bright and clear
indicate a happy year.
But when accompanied by rain,
for better times our hopes are vain.”
Sirius is roughly 8.5 light years away from Earth, making it one of the closest stars to us. As seen with the naked eye, Sirius appears to twinkle or shimmer more than other stars. Because it is very bright, atmospheric effects are amplified, especially when it is nearer the horizon and seen through the denser part of the atmosphere which can be turbulent and contain many different particles and dust.
Additionally, when a star is near the horizon, refraction is strong enough to create images of the star in every color of the rainbow and cast them about in different directions. To our eye, the star looks like a continuous sparkle of varying colored light as split-second variations in moving air pockets make it dance about.
Similarly, different chemicals in the meteors produce different colors as they burn up while entering the Earth's atmosphere. For example, meteors made from primarily calcium will give off a purple or violet color, while those made out of magnesium will appear to have a green or teal color.
This tartan, by Carol A.L. Martin, represents a twinkling star in a dark night sky.
Fascinatingly, in ancient times, Sirius was often referred to as a red star, though it is known to be a blue-white star (the color of which would not have changed over the time period of interest). For an analysis of the Sirius "color change mystery" click the photo of Sirius.