This summer offers Long Island stargazers evenings of delight

Star light, star bright, and after dark this summer in a cloudless Long Island sky, dazzling celestial nights.

The warm evenings, children off from school and storybook asterisms and constellations — are all a recipe for ample stargazing and enjoying other displays of cosmic beauty, according to a post on the NASA website.

On Long Island, the best spots to stargaze are generally farther east and toward the ocean, essentially away from light pollution, which makes phenomena in the skies harder to see, according to Karl Silverberg, vice president of the Astronomical Society of Long Island.

While every season offers its own opportunities to appreciate the skies, summer is the warmest of the seasons for stargazers and would-be stargazers old and young.

"It gets the kid interested in science, obviously, it gives them an appreciation of the outdoors, an appreciation of the night sky," he said.

For Nassau and Western Suffolk, some of the best spots for stargazing include Robert Moses and Sunken Meadow state parks.

Farther east: Hampton Bays, Dune Road just west of the Connetquot Bridge; the Custer observatory in Southold just past Mattituck; and overlook spots along Montauk Highway in Montauk.

"You’ll see a lot of stars, and if you go further east, you’ll see even more stars," Silverberg said.

As for stargazing from the beach, he said, "You’re standing at the beach, everything south of you, there’s no light pollution."

In the summer, you can see the Milky Way — in July and August, it will rise to be at its peak about 10 or 11 p.m., he said.

The year’s best meteor shower, according to NASA, is the Perseids, this year peaking Aug. 12 to 13, although it's active from July 17 to Aug. 23, In the Northern Hemisphere, the shower is best viewed in predawn hours, although it’s sometimes visible as early as 10 p.m.

"With swift and bright meteors, Perseids frequently leave long 'wakes' of light and color behind them as they streak through Earth's atmosphere. The Perseids are one of the most plentiful showers with about 50 to 100 meteors seen per hour," NASA says.

On Long Island, Silverberg said, the moon will be at 83% and it’ll rise at 9:30 p.m. so "it’s going to be tough going for this year’s Perseids." He added: "It’s going to wash out most of the dimmer shooting stars."

Later this month will be the longest day of the year — the summer solstice — June 20. That's when the earth’s tilt toward the sun is at a maximum, according to the National Weather Service. On that day, the sun will rise at 5:22 a.m. and 8:27 p.m. for sunset, and the solstice will be at 10:42 p.m. in the Eastern time zone, marking the first day of summer, according to David Stark, a weather service meteorologist.

Around the world, there are celebrations for the solstice, which include plunging into the ocean, visiting prehistoric monuments, dancing around a maypole, watching a baseball game under the sun, and building bonfires, according to Smithsonian Magazine.

And on Long Island, among the ways celebrants can enjoy this longest day of the year for a few more days: the Oyster Bay Railroad Museum’s Summer Solstice Beach Party 2025, June 24, from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m.

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.