The Orionid meteor shower peaked overnight on October 21 into October 22, closing out one of the more reliable showers of the autumn. The moon is now waxing toward its full October phase, the Hunter’s Moon, which arrives October 26. Skies will stay brighter than usual for the next several nights as a result, so this is a good week to rest the telescope and watch the calendar instead.
The next dark window opens with the new moon on November 9, running roughly November 5 through November 13. This stretch is likely to be the best stargazing of the remaining season, before the park closes for its scheduled seasonal break.
The Keweenaw Mountain Lodge calendar lists two programs during that window: a Northern Lights Photography Workshop on November 7, taught by photographer Nate Bett, and a Lights Out! observance running November 6 through 12, encouraging reduced outdoor lighting across the property to support darker skies. Reservations for the workshop are required and may be made by calling the front desk at the Lodge.
Looking a little further ahead, the Leonid meteor shower peaks overnight on November 17, debris left behind by Comet Tempel-Tuttle. It is not expected to be an especially strong year for the Leonids, with roughly ten to fifteen meteors per hour under dark skies, but it remains worth watching for. This peak falls just after the Keweenaw Dark Sky Park closes for staff vacation on November 16 (opening back up on December 15th), so the golf course grounds will not be accessible that night. Stargazers are welcome to watch instead from Brockway Mountain Drive or one of the nearby county and state parks along Lake Superior.
The sun also remains active this autumn, and additional coronal mass ejections remain possible in the weeks ahead. It is worth checking NOAA’s real-time aurora forecast at spaceweather.gov each evening and watching the northern horizon from a dark, open vantage point.
The Keweenaw Dark Sky Park closes for the season on November 16 and reopens December 14. Cabin guests of the Keweenaw Mountain Lodge may borrow a telescope to make the most of any of the nights remaining before then.