The 34th annual Grand Canyon Star Party will be held from Saturday, June 1, through Saturday, June 8, on the South and North Rims of Grand Canyon National Park. Many National Parks including Grand Canyon are protective havens for some of the last remaining dark skies in the United States.
Dozens of telescopes will offer views of planets, double stars, star clusters, nebulae, and distant galaxies. By day, keep an eye out for solar telescopes pointed at the sun. Weather permitting, expect spectacular views of the universe!
South Rim Viewing
On the South Rim, parking is available at the Grand Canyon Visitor Center in Lots 1 through 4. Events include a nightly slide show from a special guest speaker at 8 p.m. in the Grand Canyon Visitor Center Theater. The list of speakers can be found on the park webpage: Grand Canyon Star Party 2024, June 1-8 – Grand Canyon National Park (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov). To get a good seat for the speaker presentation, arrive early. The talks are followed by free telescope viewing behind the building. Green-laser Constellation Tours will be offered nightly at 9, 9:30 and 10 p.m.
Nighttime temperatures on both rims can be quite cool, even in summer. Those attending the Star Party are encouraged to bring warm layers of clothing. A light source is recommended for the walk to the viewing area, but white lights are not permitted on the Telescope Lot. Give your eyes time to adapt to darkness, or use a red flashlight, easily made by covering any flashlight with red cellophane.
And on the North Rim
On the North Rim, telescopes will be set up on the terrace of the Grand Canyon Lodge every evening. Astronomers will also use green lasers to point out constellations. By day, look for solar telescopes on the terrace and surrounding the Grand Canyon Lodge. Check the Visitor Center and park bulletin boards for program topics and additional details.
The 2024 Star Party is sponsored by the National Park Service, Grand Canyon Conservancy, the Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association (South Rim), and the Saguaro Astronomy Club of Phoenix (North Rim).
In June 2019, Grand Canyon National Park achieved International Dark-Sky Park status through DarkSky International. The certification is awarded to parks that have retrofitted at least 67% of their exterior lights to be dark-sky-friendly and maintain outreach programs throughout the year. The park had five years to make 90% of its lights dark-sky friendly. This year, the park celebrates achieving over 90% dark-sky compliance of all exterior lighting fixtures, having passed the milestone in January of 2024.
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Thank you, RV Travel! 🙂 This sounds wonderful (although we can’t possibly attend)! 🙂 I hope that it is a great success and continues. It reminds me of nights at our school’s (Western Kentucky University) planetarium learning the northern hemisphere’s constellations and a few major stars for my astronomy course. Those sessions and the shows that preceded them were so interesting and exciting too. Exciting to be able to look at the sky and see the constellations and know what they are and what the name is. Thanks again and safe travels! 🙂
Great article and perfect timing. We will be at the North Rim May 31 thru June 3rd. Looking forward to the Star-Gazing party!