SoCal park among best places to watch Perseid meteor shower as skywatching events converge over California

The Perseid meteor shower peaks tonight, and one iconic California park offers dark skies and unparalleled conditions for seeing the year’s best star show.Yahoo! News has curated a list of five spectacular places in the US to view the Perseid shower, and the sweeping desert setting of SoCal’s Joshua Tree National Park earned it the number five spot.

This year’s conditions are especially favorable as the peak coincides with a New Moon, meaning skies will be at their darkest. According to NASA, while the meteor shower can be seen across the US, “visibility should be ideal” for many parts of California, especially Joshua Tree, which is a designated International Dark Sky Park, famed for its vast views and absence of light pollution.Californians can expect to see 50-100 meteors per hour tonight, with showers becoming visible between 9 and 11 PM.

However, the pre-dawn hours of August 13 are expected to host the highest frequency of falling stars.While the Perseids peak tonight, the shower will keep on showering through August 24, giving us more time for gazing, albeit with ever-increasing moonlight.According to Yahoo! News, despite its relative proximity to Los Angeles, Joshua Tree is a perfect point to take in the Perseids, noting that the dry climate keeps haze at bay and clouds at a minimum.California's top news, sports and entertainment delivered to your inbox every day.

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Never miss a story “If you head there for the meteor shower, you’ll get to see the shooting stars against a backdrop of iconic Joshua trees,” said Yahoo!For those looking to spend the night under the shooting stars this evening, the park campsites are still available, with overnight rates starting at $30.Bryce Canyon in Utah took the number one slot on Yahoo’s list, followed by Badlands National Park in South Dakota, Black ...