This year the new moon fell on 12 August, right on the peak of the Perseid meteor shower. Half of Sicily was outdoors looking up anyway, and so were we. From 9 to 14 August volunteers logged 41 sessions at 19 points, our busiest week since the project began. Four new volunteers took their first readings.
San Lorenzo at Mondello
The night of 10 August, San Lorenzo, is when much of Palermo goes down to the beach to watch for shooting stars. We measured at Mondello (PA-06) that night, then again at the same hour on a quiet night later in the week.
| Night | Median | Conditions |
|---|---|---|
| Monday 10 August | 18.31 | Clear, light haze, crowded beach |
| Thursday 13 August | 18.52 | Clear, light haze, quiet |
The difference is 0.21, which makes the sky about a fifth brighter on the festival night. Car headlamps and the lights of the beach bars are the obvious suspects. Two nights are not a study, but the gap is twice our margin of error, and we will repeat the pair next year.
What about the meteors?
Meters don’t count meteors, people do. The best informal count came from Piano Battaglia, with 61 meteors between 01:00 and 02:00 on 13 August. In the same hour, the volunteer on duty in the Kalsa saw four. It was the same shower in the same hour, under two very different skies.