Announcing Minnesota’s Second Annual Statewide Star Party

Celebrating our Dark Skies

Monday-Saturday, November 9–14, 2020

When you look up at the night sky, do you ever wonder how different it would look under really dark skies? What others across the state can see compared to what you see in your town?

We invite you to participate in Minnesota’s second annual Statewide Star Party during the week of Monday, November 9 through Saturday, November 14, 2020. This year’s theme is “Celebrating Our Dark Skies,” and we will do that by exploring the night skies across the state. Together, you and your community will join others across the state in observing stars, planets and other astronomical objects, considering what it means to have dark skies, and understanding how light pollution affects our view (and what we can do about that).

After receiving feedback from our partners, we have decided to move our second annual Statewide Star Party to a virtual setting. This will allow us to celebrate our skies in a safe manner during the pandemic, as well as spend more time exploring the topic!

We are planning a week of virtual events, where night sky experts from across the state can participate and share their experiences and efforts to celebrate and protect our night sky.

If your organization would like to participate in our programming, please fill out the form below. Participation can include things like:

a. Nominate a speaker

b. Record an informational video

c. Share resources

d. Host/Participate in live telescope viewing

e. Help share our virtual programming with your community

We welcome your continued feedback and suggestions as we work on putting together this exciting event.

Thank you!

Questions? Email us at statestarparty@umn.edu.

The Statewide Star Party is made possible by the generous grant support of Ruth and John Huss.