Which meteor shower is called the Tears of St. Lawrence and why?
Each August, during the first few weeks, the Perseids light up the sky with their famous celestial fireworks. They are called ‘the Tears of St. Lawrence’ because they happen to coincide with the festival of Saint Lawrence. These ‘fiery tears’ have been observed around the 10th of August since the 10th century and were routinely recorded in the church calendar of England. In 1836, Quetlet was able to prove they were periodic, and in 1866 the Italian astronomer Schiaparelli announced that the ‘Perseids’ moved in the same orbit as Comet Swift-Tuttle 1862 III.
