For this event, we will combine our regular Summer Hours activities starting before the Sun goes down, with an extension into the early morning hours when the odds for shooting stars will be greatest. Visit anytime between 7PM and 2AM and stay as long as you want.

Between 7 and 9PM, families can enjoy activities in the classroom, and tours of our grounds. Observing will begin around 9PM, with visitors having the opportunity to see galaxies, nebulae, and star-clusters through our different telescopes. As the evening progresses, the radiant (the apparent origin) of the meteor shower will rise higher in the northeast increasing the probability of additional and brighter meteors.

– The event will begin Saturday evening at 7pm, and the sky-park will remain open until 2am Sunday morning.

– Feel free to come anytime between 7pm and 2am (the later the better for meteor hunting). Lay back, relax, and stay as long as you would like.

– Bring your own lawn chairs, Zero-g chairs, blankets, pillows, etc. Bring your own cooler, refreshments and snacks.

– Although the meteors will be the “(shooting) star of the show”, we will have our various telescopes trained on dozens of beautiful objects throughout the evening.

See here for the location of Branched Oak Observatory.

HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!

The Perseid Meteor Shower is caused when the Earth passes through the debris leftover by Comet Swift-Tuttle. These tiny remnants enter Earth’s atmosphere and produce a beautiful light show. The high point of the meteor shower is predicted between the 11th and the 14th of August and may yield as many as 90 meteors per hour. The “radiant” for the shower is in the constellation of Perseus found low in the northeast. Perseus is the Greek hero who flew in on the back of Pegasus and dispatched the Kraken sea monster using the head of Medusa and saving Andromeda the Princess.