CRESTONE — The 2023 Crestone Dark Sky Celebration will be held at the Crestone Charter School on the evening of Saturday, Aug. 12. The gathering will dovetail with the peak of the Perseid Meteor Showers.
According to NASA, the Perseid shower, which peaks in mid-August, is considered the best meteor shower of the year. With swift and bright meteors, Perseids frequently leave long "wakes" of light and color behind them as they streak through Earth's atmosphere. The Perseids are one of the most abundant showers with about 50 to 100 meteors seen per hour. NASA has called the Perseids the "fireball champion" of annual meteor showers for its record-breaking frequency of super-bright meteors, known as fireballs.
Meteors come from leftover comet particles and bits from broken asteroids. When comets travel around the Sun, they leave a dusty trail behind them. Every year Earth passes through these debris trails, which allows the bits to collide with our atmosphere and disintegrate to create fiery and colorful streaks in the sky. The meteors can travel at speeds of up to 37 miles per second.
The fragments of space debris that interact with our atmosphere to create the Perseids originate from comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle. This comet takes about 130 years to orbit the Sun once. Comet Swift-Tuttle was discovered in 1862 by Lewis Swift and Horace Tuttle. Swift-Tuttle is a large comet: its nucleus is 16 miles across.
In addition to the Perseid showers, both the Alpha Capricornids (known for bright fireballs) and the Southern Delta Aquariids are active from mid-August through mid-September, and a few extra meteors will also appear in the night sky.
The charter school is nestled at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. This year, the festival will be led by Crestone astronomer Scott Stevens who, as a former professional meteorologist, has spent a lifetime thinking and working with the atmosphere.
Stevens has been using instruments to measure the darkness of the skies near Crestone and will kick off the evening by sharing his findings.
"I will review my observations, what contributes to our dark skies, what seasons are better, how clouds affect dark skies, how clear skies do, the Milky Way, and how the population in the Valley as it continues to grow," Stevens said. “I'll talk about amateur astronomy, and what can you do on a particular budget. There has truly been a revolution in the last 20-30 years in the night sky [viewing] because of technology."
The evening will include a discussion about astrophotography and Stevens will offer suggestions on the gear available. This year the festival will focus more on astronomy than entertainment says Stevens. The presentations will begin inside the school at 7 p.m., lasting about 90 minutes, and then move outside for celestial observations and all the Perseids can offer.
"We can bring our lawn chairs, blankets, binoculars, and watch the meteors," says Stevens."
In 2021, the International Dark Sky Association (IDA) designated the Town of Crestone as an International Dark Sky Community. The town became the 31st designated as such worldwide, and the fourth in Colorado.
This fall, Stevens says he plans on having two other dark sky events near Crestone on the Baca Grande.
The Valley Courier will have news of those celestial gatherings and more on the Dark Sky Celebration as they become available.
The Crestone Charter School is located at 330 East Lime Ave. For more information, visit www. Darkskycrestone.com.
