If you’re looking for a place to watch the Perseid meteor shower in Arizona, then you’re invited to Lost Dutchman State Park in Apache Junction.
A gathering of park regulars and stargazers will meet Friday evening and will pull an all-nighter into early Saturday to view what scientists are calling a rare “outburst” of meteors in the skies this year.
Kim Grady is on the board of the Friends of Lost Dutchman, which helped saved the state park from closure in 2010 by organizing star-gazing events such as this.
“You can bring a lounge chair, a cot, whatever you want and enjoy the area. We’re in a big, parking and camping area — it’s all asphalt and granite — and just make yourself comfortable and look at the sky with us," said Grady.
A park entrance fee of $20 per adult is required. The gathering at Lost Dutchman will begin at 9:30 p.m. with a discussion that includes NASA scientists on the significance of this year’s Perseid meteor shower, which will be seen best after moonset in the early morning hours.
Thanks to a gravity nudge from Jupiter, comet debris could come in to view and double the amount of meteor activity, more than 200 an hour expected to be visible in the skies — weather permitting.
