submitted by Jerad
Aug 12 2007 — 2:00am
So the Perseid meteor shower peaks tonight(Sunday) and tomorrow night (Monday). Anybody looking for a good spot to watch them might reasonably check out the Minnesota Astronomical Society. However, outside of fun specially-arranged events they don’t list good places around the Cities to watch the night skies.
I humbly ask the great gathered minds of MNSpeak: where’s a good place without too much light pollution to watch the night sky? Where would you stay up to see the sky come down?
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16 Reader Comments
12:45 am
I’d head out to St. Michael. There’s still civilization, but no light pollution.
12:47 am
I tried to see it tonight, but there was too much cloud cover. I’ll give it a shot tomorrow from my girlfriend’s parent’s house in Ramsey.
1:46 am
Late Friday night I was watching from 5,000′ over Mille Lacs. It wasn’t at peak but I did see it. Under it was a panorama of the thunderstorm rolling in. Wish I had pictures.
9:23 am
You can beat Theodore Roosevelt National Park in western North Dakota for views of the night sky. Bit of a drive…
10:36 am
For the brave souls, drive up MN-95 north of Stillwater and then right on Arcola Trial. Walk out on the Soo Line High Bridge – I’ll bet there’s a great view from there.
Of course, if a train comes, you’re screwed.
11:01 am
I just learned that the Astronomical Society’s Metcalf Observing Field will be open. However, as it’s 40 minutes from NE Minneapolis and it might rain tonight, I don’t know whether the drive will be worth it. I guess it still beats Logan Park…
12:28 pm
I just spent a week in the woods (BWCAW) and while it was pre-peak, we saw an excellent show. Also, we saw either the shuttle or the International Space Station while there. Thus, if you got the time, try Crooked Lake…
1:15 pm
DouglasG: “I just spent a week in the woods (BWCAW)..”
You were in the woods pretending to be a chicken?
1:29 pm
Chickens go bock-bock… Crows go BWCAW!!!
1:42 pm
Did anybody spot any UFO’s while watching the meteors??
1:45 pm
I stood on a path at Gooseberry State Park and strained my neck up to watch the meteors burn in the upper atmosphere. It was literally the most amazing thing I have ever seen!
However, now my neck is killing me!
Well worth it though. Owwww……
1:45 pm
I saw a MNSpeaker get attacked by a red fox while she was straining her neck trying to see meteors…
3:39 pm
“where’s a good place without too much light pollution to watch the night sky?“
Go to Excelsior, and then head west on 7 for half an hour. At any point after that, in between towns, stop in some empty field, lay out your lawn chairs, and just stare up. On a good night, you can get a nice glimpse of the Northern Lights, too.
3:42 pm
“For the brave souls, drive up MN-95 north of Stillwater and then right on Arcola Trial. Walk out on the Soo Line High Bridge – I’ll bet there’s a great view from there.“
Ah, memories. I’m pretty sure that’s where we all used to go to party long ago after the ski hill closed for the night – out in the middle of that bridge. (When the trains would blow their whistle a mile away, some would run for the end and just make it, but others of us, knowing that “running” on ties in the dark wasn’t really in the cards for us, would climb over the side and wait on the crossbeams that stick out. Sounds sort of stupid now, but it made much more sense back then when we were too high to think about it.)
5:30 pm
So in the face of stormclouds I may not go out, but I need to share this cool tool: a Minnesota astronomer did a GoogleMaps mash-up with a light pollution map. The result he calls a Dark Sky Finder. If I read the map right, dark skies are only 2 hours away in scenic McGrath.
11:37 am
When did the space station go up? In response to Christine’s question, if the space station wasn’t up by August 5th, then yes, I saw a pretty big UFO around 10:00. Freaked me out! And no, I’m NOT crazy.