Gary's Perseids Meteor Shower

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Author's Note: Today is the birthday of Smiley's News! Next week, we'll be doing a special article about our celebration!

Although the famous groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, predicts the end of winter, our groundhog here at Animal Adventures Inc. loves talking about solar eclipses, meteor showers, and other astronomical phenomenons. Today he went around the office talking about the Perseids meteor shower. “IT'S HERE!” he shouted. “IT CAME!” Most animals here are very excited about learning about the next apocalypse, but they weren't always thrilled to have Gary screaming in their ears. “DID YOU SEE IT?” he yelled, “IT HAPPENED JUST A FEW DAYS AGO!” “Calm down, Gary,” I state, “What are you talking about?”

He stopped yelling and looked at me. “The Perseids meteor shower happened around this week at midnight till dawn,” he informed. Gary went on to talk about how the Perseid meteor shower was associated with the Swift-Tuttle comet. “It's seen around a constellation, Perseus. That's where it gets the name Perseids, which in Greek stands for the sons of Perseus.” Gary stated, proudly.

“Uh nice,” I say with a smile. “The meteors reach over 60 miles per hour depending on how fast they go. The meteors are actually debris or particles of the Perseids cloud. Some of the pieces are over a thousand years old. The Swift-Tuttle goes on a 133 year route to get here so this might be a once in a life time event for us here.”

"I'll be able to see it again," said a tortoise. "My species lives 200 years or more at a time."

"You're one of the only exceptions, I'm afraid."

Before any of the animals know, Gary had gotten us to stay at Animal Adventures Inc. for the whole night. He had us all outside looking at the stars. He also brought out some blankets.

“Not too cozy now,” he stated. “You'll fall asleep and miss the once in a life time event.”

Gary also brought snacks. Chef Rack-coon helped out on that end.

“Hey Gary, you said the meteor shower was tonight, so uh...what gives?” yelled an animal. “I don't see anything?”
“You guys have to wait. It will be here sometime after midnight and before dawn,” Gary answered.

“I'm actually getting tired,” complained Carey the cat.

“I am not sleepy,” informed Benny the Bat. “I am wide awake.”

“Of course you would be. You're nocturnal!” muttered another animal.

After a few hours, everyone was finding it hard to stay awake. Gary was the first to fall asleep, in fact so did everyone else except Benny. We all wake up to Benny yelling that it started. A little disoriented, we all had no clue what he was talking about until he pointed up at the sky.

“Aw cool,” yelled another animal. “The meteor shower!”

We all watched the meteor in awe. It was really pretty from where we sat. I'm glad we got to see it. When dawn rolled around, everyone had fallen back to sleep. What a sight we must have been to everyone passing by office! Well that's it for now. That happened on August 13^th, so uh yeah, if you haven't seen it well uh sorry to hear about that. Technically it was Gary's idea to make us stay overnight at the company but it was all good after all. The next day, I was laying at my desk.

“I CAN'T WAIT FOR OCTOBER!” yelled Gary, waking up almost everyone. “A TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE! IT'S GOING TO HAPPEN IN OCTOBER!”

Then everyone groaned and tossed pillows at Gary.

Written by: Lizzy the Lizard

Photographer: Daniel P. Smithwater

Edited by: Christian Ryan, Joy Hammond & Mr. Smiley

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