How to watch the Perseid meteor shower in Minnesota

Celestial events are commanding mass interest around Minnesota, from last summer’s beguiling super moon to April’s total solar eclipse to May’s epic aurora borealis.

And the star party is still going. Perseid meteor showers are expected to peak Sunday night into Monday. What’s more, the shooting stars will be more visible this year because they’re occurring during a first-quarter moon, meaning less lunar glow.

Mike Shaw of Maplewood is an accomplished astrophotographer and instructor who has documented the night with amazing images from Minnesota and across the United States. He’s also a state delegate to DarkSky International, which certified Voyageurs National Park and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness as a park and sanctuary, respectively, in 2020 for their remarkable stargazing conditions.

Shaw led a photo workshop group to a park in southwestern Arkansas in April to witness the total solar eclipse. There were hundreds of other strangers there, too. But any differences between them went away, he recalled, when the moon moved in front of the sun and darkened the day.

“For one brief period of time, we were all human beings experiencing a celestial event, and the exact same thing happened with the aurora,” Shaw added. “Everything seems to be splitting people in half, but these celestial phenomenon don’t do that, at least as far as I know. That’s a neat aspect of it.”

The Perseids will be another opportunity to come together. A glance at what to expect, and where and how to view them:

The annual meteor showers, aka shooting stars, begin in mid-July and peak in early to mid-August in the Northern Hemisphere. Meteors are leftover comet particles and bits from broken asteroids, which turn into fireworks in the night sky when they hit the Earth’s atmosphere, according to NASA’s website.

The conditions are generally believed to be best between midnight and 4 a.m., and the number of meteors are more robust typically in the wee hours before dawn. The moon will set at 11:11 p.m.

While bright celestial events are visible at times in the Twin Cities, dark skies are essential to seeing the faintest Perseid shower, Shaw said. Metro stargazers will need to get an hour or more removed from the region. He recommended a few areas he likes: in the areas near Solana State Forest near Lake Mille Lacs; in Wisconsin, St. Croix Falls and Crex Meadows State Wildlife Area, near Grantsburg, Wis. He also pointed the public online to lightpollutionmap.info, which through map colors and coding give a gauge of “sky brightness,” from excellent dark skies to inner-city skies.

North: The truly dedicated can venture to Voyageurs National Park, singled out by Outside magazine in a list of best national parks to view the Perseids. This week’s Star Party, Thursday through Saturday, was organized by the National Park Service, the Voyageurs Conservancy and other partners with the Perseids’ peak in mind, said the conservancy’s education specialist, Jesse Gates.

There are stargazing events year-round. The park also is retrofitting 100% of its lighting to reduce light pollution.

“People are getting more and more interested in dark skies,” Gates said. “Most people can’t see the Milky Way from their backyard, so while I think it is becoming more mainstream, [the programming] reflects a surrogate interest and care about our night skies. People want to learn about it. People want to to feel what it’s like to be under the stars.”

South: Forestville/Mystery Cave State Park would like the public to head south, west of Preston, Minn. The park will hold its fourth Dark Sky Festival on Saturday, including children’s activities and a night sky-viewing with experts from the Minnesota Institute for Astrophysics.

Park naturalist Dan Cocchiarella said while night skies programming, including that at the festival, has increased in recent years, southeastern Minnesota is perhaps overlooked as a destination. He said the park sits in a valley, limiting the effect of light pollution from Rochester.

“This southeast section of the state is dark, and dark sky tourism is something I believe can benefit the Driftless Region,” he said. “Bringing awareness to our dark skies is paramount.”

The park is working with Starry Skies North, a Minnesota chapter of DarkSky International, on certification as a Dark Sky park, and outreach like that at the festival can improve the park’s eligibility.

After turning off a cellphone screen, allow 20-30 minutes for your eyes to adapt to the dark to improve chances of picking up dimmer meteor showers, Shaw said.