The Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore has shared the dates for its summer 2024 “star party” and “solar viewing” events. The first of those events is scheduled to take place on June 15, with the rest of the calendar reaching all the way to mid-September.

During star party events, Sleeping Bear rangers “will provide information on preserving dark skies,” while astronomers from the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society (GTAS) will be on hand with telescopes for visitors to use. Attendees will have opportunities to observe prominent craters on the moon, notable star systems, constellations, and more.

The schedule for summer 2024 star parties is as follows:

>Saturday, June 15
>Saturday, July 13
>Saturday, August 10
>Saturday, August 31
>Saturday, September 14

All star parties are scheduled to take place from 9-11pm at the Dune Climb parking lot, except for the August 10 date, which will be moved to the Thoreson Farm due to the Port Oneida Fair.

In addition to star parties, the Sleeping Bear team is hosting two daytime solar viewing events this summer. These events “will feature family-friendly ranger-led activities related to the sun and our solar system,” per a press release, with GTAS experts on hand once more to provide special solar viewing scopes. Those events will take place at the Dune Climb from 3-6pm on Saturday, June 29 and Saturday, July 27.

All star party and solar viewing events are open to the public and free, other than the cost of a pass to enter the National Lakeshore.