If the forecast for mainly clear skies across Michigan’s Upper & Lower Peninsulas isn’t thrilling enough, there is a G2 (Moderate) Aurora Alert which means that Michigan has a better than usual chance to see the Northern Lights as well! I found a cool site from University of Michigan called AuroraTonight that gives you a good look at sky conditions & chances where you live.
David captured this shot of the full moon rising over the Mackinac Bridge back in July of 2024. Follow him on Flickr for his latest!
PS: It’s pretty darn cool & synchronistic that the August full moon was known as the Sturgeon Moon by Michigan Natives.
Stargazers on the night side of Earth (that’s us!) will catch their first glimpse of our planet’s umbra (the darkest, innermost part of its shadow) creeping onto the moon’s surface at 10:33 p.m. EDT on Aug. 27. The vast shadow will continue its advance across the crater-scarred landscape in the hours that follow, until it hits the point of maximum eclipse at 12:12 a.m. EDT on Aug. 28.
Around this time, you may notice the shadowed region of the moon take on a reddish-orange color, as sunlight filtered through Earth’s atmosphere is bent onto the lunar surface — a phenomenon often referred to as a “Blood Moon” during a total eclipse.
I first shared this amazing shot of a partial lunar eclipse over the Detroit skyline way back in 2015. See more great photos from Tom on Flickr.
The Perseid Meteor Shower that peaks this week is often Michigan’s best meteor display, and it might be part of the best 24 hours of the year for sky watching! Star Walk is the app I use to determine what I’m looking at in the night sky, and they are touting Wednesday, August 12 as the biggest skywatching day of 2026. In less than 24 hours, the sky will put on three major shows — a six-planet alignment before sunrise, a total solar eclipse during the day or evening, and the peak of the Perseid meteor shower after dark. While we will only see a slight partial eclipse in Michigan, it is definitely a good time to be looking up!
Space.com has an interesting story about how the upcoming Perseid Meteor shower (peak August 11-13) came to be known as “The Tears of St. Lawrence” and also some of the science behind this annual August sky show:
Laurentius, a Christian deacon, is said to have been martyred by the Romans in 258 AD on an iron outdoor stove. It was in the midst of this torture that Laurentius cried out: “I am already roasted on one side and, if thou wouldst have me well cooked, it is time to turn me on the other.”
The saint’s death was commemorated on his feast day, Aug. 10. King Phillip II of Spain built his monastery place the “Escorial,” on the plan of the holy gridiron. And the abundance of shooting stars seen annually between approximately Aug. 8 and 14 have come to be known as St. Lawrence’s “fiery tears.”
…We know today that these meteors are actually the dross of the Swift-Tuttle comet. Discovered back in 1862, this comet takes approximately 130 years to circle the Sun. With each pass, it leaves fresh debris — mostly the size of sand grains with a few peas and marbles tossed in. Every year during mid-August, when the Earth passes close to the orbit of Swift-Tuttle, the bits and pieces ram into our atmosphere at approximately 37 miles per second (60 kps) and create bright streaks of light.
Ken captured these Perseid meteors eleven Augusts ago over a 2 1/2 hour period at the D.H. Day Farm in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. He relates that the barn was being lit periodically by rogue lightning and that this is a composite of many meteor images, where each photo is rotated around the north star so that the ‘point of origin’ of the shower can be seen better.
The NOAA / National Weather Service Space Weather Prediction Center issued a G3 Aurora Alert this morning after detecting THREE Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) heading our way. Details are in the image or on their website, but the current forecast calls for combined CME arrival around mid-afternoon EDT of June 4, with up to G3 levels possible afterwards, possibly continuing into Friday night. You can read about the various scales used to measure the aurora, but a G3 alert means that it’s possible we could see the lights in EVERY part of the state!!
Shawn shared this photo recently saying “What an amazing night at Isle Royale National Park – the sky lit up✨ The night of 05.28.2025 – memorable!!! You always hope to time Isle Royale visits like this.”
Visit Alpena shares that Rockport State Recreation Area in northeast Michigan’s Presque Isle County was Michigan’s 100th State park and holds a variety of terrain and unique geologic, historic, and natural elements. They also share:
Rural isolation has its benefits. Being miles away from any major metropolitan area gives northeast Michigan an unique advantage for those who enjoy the mysteries revealed in the night sky. Our lack of concentrated light pollution makes the cosmos appear crisp and clear. Dark lands can be found at Rockport State Park Recreation Area where light emissions are among the lowest in the Great Lakes. Stars, meteors, planets and moons await your discovery.
Sarah is a Michigan State Parks Photo Ambassador which seems like a very cool thing to be. You should definitely check out her website where you can view & purchase her work as well as her Facebook & sg.captures on Instagram!
The AMS fireball reporting system has been in continuous operation since 2005 and reached maturity around 2016–2018, with annual Q1 event totals stabilizing in the range of 1,100–1,400 events. What follows is an analysis of Q1 data from 2011–2026, with particular attention to the 2021–2026 window where the reporting platform has been fully stable.
The most important finding from our analysis is that the total number of fireball events is not dramatically unusual. Q1 2026’s 2,046 total events is the highest on record but only marginally above 2022 (2,037) and 2021 (1,947). If this were simply a matter of more people filing reports, we would expect a proportional increase across all witness-count thresholds. That is not what we see.
…At the 25+ report threshold, 2026 has produced 61 events versus a 2021–2025 average of roughly 43—up about 42%. At 50+ reports, 2026 has 38 events versus an average of 18—more than double. And at 100+, the count of 14 is twice the average of 7. The signal gets stronger as the threshold rises, which is the hallmark of a genuine physical change in the incoming material, not a reporting artifact.
…If the fireballs were simply being seen by more people due to favorable conditions, we would not expect changes in the physical characteristics reported by witnesses. But the data shows an elevated rate of delayed sound reports—sonic booms reaching the ground—which requires objects that penetrate deep enough into the atmosphere to produce pressure waves.
SpaceWeather.com is one of my go-to sources for information about what’s going on up there, and they explain that what’s going TONIGHT is the peak of the annual Lyrid Meteor Shower:
Every year in late April Earth passes through the dusty tail of Comet Thatcher (C/1861 G1, named by A.E. Thatcher in 1861), and the encounter causes a meteor shower–the Lyrids. This year the shower peaks on Saturday night, April 21st. Forecasters expect 10 to 20 meteors per hour, although outbursts as high as 100 meteors per hour are possible.
Lyrid meteors appear to stream from the bright star Vega in the constellation Lyra. In fact, Lyrids have nothing to do with Vega. The true source of the shower is Comet Thatcher. Every year in April, Earth plows through Thatcher’s dusty tail. Flakes of comet dust, most no bigger than grains of sand, strike Earth’s atmosphere traveling 49 km/s (110,000 mph) and disintegrate as streaks of light.
Lyrid meteors are typically as bright as the stars in the Big Dipper, which is to say of middling brightness. But some are more intense, even brighter than Venus. These “Lyrid fireballs” cast shadows for a split second and leave behind smokey debris trails that linger for minutes. Occasionally, the shower intensifies. Most years in April there are no more than 5 to 20 meteors per hour during the shower’s peak. But sometimes, when Earth glides through an unusually dense clump of comet debris, the rate increases.
Daniel took this photo back in April of 2013 and shares “I went out in an attempt to catch some meteors from the Lyrid Meteor shower. I was very unlucky and didn’t catch any. My methodology for shooting the meteors is to just find a composition and set it up to take as many 30 second exposures that I am willing to wait through. In this case, 182 exposures. This way if I don’t catch a meteor, I still get some star trails to show off.” See more in his Moon & Stars gallery on Flickr and view & purchase his work on his website.
“Even though the evidence is still early, this could be a very significant event in 2026 and lingering into 2027,” says Daniel Swain, climate scientist with the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources.
A strong El Niño would drive up average global temperatures. The hottest years on record generally occur in years when El Niño is active, because El Niño occurs when the Eastern Pacific is hotter than usual. “Its function in the global earth system is to release heat from the deeper oceans that has been temporarily stored there,” Swain says. “El Niño allows that subducted heat to be unearthed.”
That dynamic played out in a big way in 2023 and 2024, when a long, strong El Niño pattern helped shatter global temperature records. 2023 smashed the record for the hottest year ever recorded on Earth, only to be surpassed by temperatures in 2024.
Last week Shawn shared this photo saying that she’s eagerly anticipating the return of nights watching the aurora barefoot so it looks like El Niño is gonna help with that. You can see lots more amazing photos from Lake Superior Photo on Facebook. You can also visit the Lake Superior Photo website to view & purchase photos and for information about their Marquette gallery along with photography workshops, tours, and guiding.
The announcements build on recent updates to the Artemis program. Artemis 2 will carry a human crew around the moon and back. It might launch as soon as early April. The new initiatives include standardizing the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket configuration and to add an additional mission in 2027. Plus it plans on undertaking at least one surface landing every year thereafter.
Additionally, Artemis 3 – scheduled for 2027 – will focus on testing integrated systems and operational capabilities in Earth orbit. That will be in advance of the Artemis 4 lunar landing. Looking beyond Artemis 5, NASA will begin to incorporate more commercially procured and reusable hardware to undertake frequent and affordable crewed missions to the lunar surface. Plus, NASA will initially target landings every six months, with the potential to increase cadence as capabilities mature.
To achieve a lasting human presence on the moon, NASA also announced a phased approach to building a lunar base. As part of this strategy, the agency intends to pause Gateway in its current form and shift focus to infrastructure that enables sustained surface operations. Despite challenges with some existing hardware, the agency will repurpose applicable equipment and leverage international partner commitments to support these objectives.
EarthSky’s Deborah Byrd has an interview with space journalist Eric Berger of Ars Technica. Berger explains the peak-risk moments of the upcoming 10-day Artemis 2 mission & gives an insider’s look at the changes announced on February 27 for the Artemis program.
