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Check out my new flyers with an upgraded postcard at Davidson Mesa and the Boulder visitor center on Pearl St. Simply fill out, cut along the dotted line, attach stamp and send one as a postcard.
Find them at the Scenic Overlook at Davidson Mesa:
Also find them on Pearl St Mall at the Visitor Information Center:
Updated: Jul 31, 2021
The Perseids meteor shower is on! Get a plan to get outside and start watching the shower! This guide will tell you what you need and how to make a plan to see the shower on your own! If you want to skip the planning just book a tour to see the shower and more up close in a telescope with me.
In short:
Plan = when?, where?, & how?
#1 - when?
Any day from Aug ~7th to the ~15th with ~11pm - ~3am any of those nights being a good time.
#2 - where?
Either just try your backyard or using this map find the darkest place that you can get to safely and legally: https://www.lightpollutionmap.info/#zoom=4.00&lat=39.1997&lon=-97.2914&layers=B0TFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
Check the weather for temperature and cloud cover here: weather.gov
#3 - how?
The best way to increase your chances to view any meteor shower is to: 1) turn off all lights and let your eyes adjust to the dark for 20min. 2) lay on your back under the night sky to maximize the amount of your field of view taken up by the sky. I recommend heading to a public park with a picnic blanket and lay out on your blanket in the middle of a light-less grassy field.
What you need to bring:
Something to lay down on (picnic blanket, trampoline, hammock, sleeping pad, rug, air mattress, etc.)
Your eyes
Optional:
Bug spray
Warm clothes for falling temperatures
A sky map app on your smartphone
Binoculars
telescope
Meteor showers are caused by the Earth traveling through a part of its orbit that has lots of debris left behind from a commit. As the Earth travels through this debris, the debris causes “falling stars” “shooting stars” or more correctly “meteors”. Small meteors (about the size of a grain of sand) are responsible for most of the shooting stars we see. These small meteors are moving extremely fast when the earth hits them ripping electrons off air molecules in the upper atmosphere, making them light up “electrifying” the air. I feel like this is what makes them so electrifying to watch!
The shower will “peak” in early August with the night of the 11th or early morning of the 12th technically being the “peak”. However, I wouldn't focus on the day it “peaks” too much as that’s just the day we will be in the middle of the debris field meaning you’ll see plenty of shooting stars before and after the ”peak”. The Perseids are a really big shower, I’ve been seeing plenty of shooting stars now even in late July. Any day from Aug ~7th to the ~15th should be really good to view the shower.
No matter the night it’s better to see meteor showers later in the night or in the wee hours of the morning ~11p to ~3p with ~2p usually being ideal. Because this is when the Earth has turned you to look more in the direction it is traveling around the sun. If you imagine the Earth as a spaceship orbiting the sun when you look up in the sky in the early evening it’s like looking out a side window, and when you look at the sky in the around midnight it’s like looking out the pilot's front window. If you’re not one to stay up late I recommend checking it out before the “peak” because this will get you a better early evening view. With a new moon on the 8th means the moon won't subtract with it's natural light pollution and you'll be able to see fainter shooting stars in the early evening (~9:30p) on the 8th than during the “peak” on the 11th. So, if you’re not up for staying up so late I would actually recommend seeing it before the “peak”.
Location can have a huge impact on how many shooting stars you will see as well. You want a very dark open area. I recommend using this mapping tool to find the best spot near you: https://www.lightpollutionmap.info/#zoom=4.00&lat=39.1997&lon=-97.2914&layers=B0TFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
I’m always impressed with places like Cherry Creek State Park or the Rocky Mountain arsenal for being so dark yet ~15 minutes away from some of the brightest areas in Colorado. Then there's places that are very dark like Nederland that's less than 1 hr from the brightest areas in the state. It’s all about finding that balance. You’ll still see the brightest falling stars in your backyard, the darker the better but don’t let it be a barrier to seeing the shower.
You want a clear area so when you lay down and look up you only see the night sky. trees/hills are nice to block out some of the surrounding light pollution but you don’t want them to block your view of the night sky and miss out on shooting stars behind them. Defiantly check the weather as well, you're not going to see any shooting stars if its cloudy. Weather.gov
Laying down under the night sky is the biggest cheat code to seeing more shooting stars. This shower is the “Perseids” meaning that the shooting stars will appear to radiate from the constellation Perseus in the North-West sky. however, you will be able to see them all over the sky! Laying down so you can see the maximum amount of sky at one time is the best way to maximize your chances of seeing a shooting star. I recommend picnic blankets, trampolines, hammocks, sleeping mats, a rug, air mattress, anything that will let you lay out under the stars for a good amount of time in comfort.
You want to lay out in complete darkness (no phones, no lights) for at least 30 mins. It will take your eyes about 20min to adjust to the dark to start seeing dimmer shooting stars. You should be able to see 50 to 75 shooting stars per hr for this shower. If you just look for ~10 min after your eyes have adjusted you will be able to see ~10 meteors and get ~10 wishes!
With that you should be more than prepared to view the meteor shower this August! Here’s a small list of other bonus things to see if you can spot while you’re out there:
The big dipper in the north west sky
The Moon - you will see a crescent moon in the West just after sunset the nights immediately around the “peak” (Aug 10th - 15th)
Venus - it will be the first “star” you can see after sunset low in the Western sky
Saturn - Saturn will be low in the Eastern sky just after sunset and rising high in the southern sky ~1a. Saturn will be at 'opposition' (basically closest it'll be to Earth) on Aug the 2nd (I also wouldn't focus on the exact date so much as we'll have good late views of Saturn all of August and beyond) Saturn will be spectacular in some binoculars or a telescope.
Jupiter - Jupiter will not appear till well after sunset but should be low in the Western sky around 11p it will be super bright and hard to miss. You will be able to see up to four of Jupiter’s moons in a pair of binoculars or a telescope
The milky way - if you’re in a dark enough area you won’t be able to miss it high in the Eastern sky ~11p
Use a star app on your phone to identify other stars / constellations. This is a fun thing to play with but every time you look at your phone remember you are losing your night vision, making it harder to see dimmer shooting stars. Turn down your screen brightness and be courteous of others not to shine light in their eyes.
If you want to see all this and more in a telescope book an astronomy tour here: Astrotours.org/booking
This was originally posted on my website here but as my business has grown and I've added more bios to that page I feel like it's no longer fitting to have such a long life story posted there (also kinda embarrassed any time someone reads the whole thing and says something like "MOOOON" to me)
Hey there I'm Luke! I'm so glad you're here on my site reading about me! I have a degree in astrophysics, over 8 years experience in educational astronomy and I have been running AstroTours.org for over three years now. I was born in Denver Colorado and have been amazed with the Rocky Mountains' sky my whole life. One of my father's favorite stories from my infancy is when he took me outside on a full moon night and I pointed up at the moon and said "ball". My father got real tickled by this and said "Very good Luke! That is a ball, we call that ball the Moon!" to which I said "MOOOOOOOOOON!". some time later I hadn't seen the moon in a while so I came to my father distressed saying "MOOOON gone gone" and doing a gesture that usually meant I was looking for food. My father laughed and showed me the moon again later that day. I've owned a few telescopes but still my favorite one was given to me by my grandfather when I was in middle school. It is a 4 inch Mak-Cassegrain telescope, it's very portable so I've taken it everywhere with me and if you come on a tour with me I'll show you how to use it and learn the sky with it as I did. After graduating from high school I took a year to work on a US Forest Service wild land fire hand crew which gave me the opportunity to go to remote places all over the United States and sleep under some really dark skies. Upon completion of my season on the hand crew, I was offered a job as a fire lookout. Stationed in the forest on a mountain outside of Lake Tahoe with large binoculars! I would use the binoculars to spot fires during the day and look at the skies at night.
I went on to study physics at the University of Colorado. After visiting Volcanoes National Park and the Mauna Kea Observatory in Hawaii, I was inspired by the incredible night skies to add astrophysics and geophysics to my degree.
I worked a few odd jobs while studying, such as spending a summer on a commercial tuna fishing vessel off the coast of Oregon. This work was dependent on the tides and required me to get familiar with the phases of the moon.
During the school year I would volunteer at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science where I ran telescopes for solar observing and special events. I joined a club that met weekly to learn how to use the planetarium and develop content to be shown in the planetarium. I graduated in 2016 with a major in physics and a minor in astrophysics and geophysics. I completed an independent study in quasar research and a senior project using magnetism to launch payloads in to space. After graduation I went to Australia on a work visa and worked odd jobs all around the continent. My two favourite jobs being a tour guide for "Space Gandalf" at Astro Tours Broome (AstroTours.net) and an astronomer at the Gravity Discovery Centre in Perth WA (gravitycentre.com.au). Both of these jobs required me to showcase the wonders of the night sky to tour groups.
When my visa expired in Australia and I had to return to America and looked all over for a similar job here. I quickly realized that nothing similar exists in Colorado which lead me to create AstroTours.org! I'm so very excited to see what comes next and what this business teaches me!
I look forward to seeing you on one of my tours!
Book a tour today at AstroTours.org/booking
