Week of Aug. 3-9, 2008 by Dennis Mammana on Creators.com

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Week of Aug. 3-9, 2008

I always look forward to August.

For one thing, the searing desert heat where I live is almost at an end. For another, the skies are particularly generous with their offerings.

But my favorite reason for enjoying August is that I get to write a word I can use only once a year:

"Thither."

It comes up every year around this time because it's when we're approaching the annual Perseid meteor shower. It was the ancient Chinese who first documented this shower in the year 36 and wrote, "more than 100 meteors flew thither in the morning". Of course, they used a corresponding word in Chinese, but you get the idea.

The New Lexicon Webster's Dictionary of the English Language defines the word "thither" as an adverb that means "to or toward that place." And my guess is that the "place" to which they referred was the shower's "radiant."

Stand outside during any meteor shower and you'll see meteors, or shooting stars, all over the sky. But if you trace their paths backwards, they all appear to come from one specific location in the sky.

This is called the showers "radiant" and is often named for the constellation in which it appears. That's why this month's shower is known as the Perseids: its radiant lies in the direction of the constellation Perseus.

This year's peak occurs late during the night of Monday, Aug. 11, and early the morning of Tuesday, Aug. 12. Typically we spot most meteors before dawn. This isn't a conspiracy to prevent evening stargazers from watching the show; it occurs because it's during those hours that we face the direction of our planet's motion and can watch as the atmosphere sweeps up meteoric particles.

During the shower's peak, stargazers can expect to count as many as 50 or 60 meteors per hour once the bright, gibbous moon sets low in the west.

For the best view, many people camp in the mountains or countryside, or park their cars alongside rural roads away from traffic. Be sure to take a lawn chair or sleeping bag, a blanket or hot chocolate to keep warm, and gaze up toward the northern and northeastern sky.

And I'll just bet that, before the night is over, you actually hear someone utter the word "thither"!

To find out more about Dennis Mammana and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.