Perseid meteor shower 復習
ニューヨークではペルセウス座流星群がピークを迎えるようですが、light pollutionが問題となっているようです。
New York Today: Polluting the Perseids
Good morning on this so-so Friday.
The peak of the Perseid meteor shower is this weekend, and tonight and Saturday night are the best times to watch.
Observers can expect to see at least 80 meteors an hour streak across the sky.
But not in New York City. And you can thank light pollution for that.
To better understand light pollution, or excessive artificial light sent into the night sky, we turned to John Barentine, an astronomer and the program manager at the International Dark-Sky Association, an organization working to reduce light-polluted skies.
“Perseid meteor shower”（ペルセウスは英語では/pə'ːrsiidz/）を取りあげます。
“meteor”は「流星」を表し、“a meteor shower”で「流星雨」となります。“Perseid”をOxford Living Dictionaryで調べると“Any of annual shower of meteors which appear to radiate from the constellation Perseus during late July and August, associates with Comet 1862 Ⅲ.”と定義されており、「ペルセウス座流星群」の事となることがわかりました。“
“light pollution”は『ジーニアス英和辞典』（第五版、大修館書店）では「過剰照明公害」とあり、星が見えにくくなってしまう現象の事を指すそうです。(flying bird)
