Lyrid meteor shower

Arches National Park is open 24 hours a day. Most everyone sees it in the daytime. But as Arches is an International Dark Sky Park, some crazy people (like us!) get up at 3am and go outside to experience the park at night.

In the early morning hours of Tuesday 4/22, we went to Panorama Point to watch the Lyrid meteor shower. It was near perfect viewing … cloudless sky, the moon had yet to rise, and very little ambient light on the horizon from Moab 10 miles away.

Here’s the night sky, includnig the Milky Way …

Sadly, we were not able to capture one of the meteors, so you’ll have to imagine them. We did see ~15 in 30 minutes time. Most were very bright streaks, with a few more like point flashes of light.

Just after 4am the moon rose in stunning fashion …

If you ever get the opportunity, do try to stay in one of the National Park campgrounds or hotels. This way you, too, can experience the parks at night … and then jump back into a warm bed, like we did.

P.S. Moonrise has been beautiful the last few nights also. Here’s the moon coming up over the Windows section of the park …

… and rising over the La Sal mountains, as seen from the campground.