Events at L&A Dark Sky Viewing Area
Events for stargazers
L&A County Dark Sky Viewing Area is a great place to stargaze, take night sky photography or make deep sky observations with your telescope!
Take a look below for some key stargazing date built around the prime stargazing schedule.
Dates listed below subject to change.
Our popular Laser-Guided Stargazing Tour events take place on Friday & Saturday nights near a new moon. Each start about an hour after dusk and last approximately 60 minutes. Weather permitting, you’ll get a laser-guided tour of the night sky. These events are a great way for novice stargazers to get acquainted with the night sky.
- April 14 & 15, 9pm
- May 12 & 13, 9:30pm
- June 23 & 24, 10pm
- July 21 & 22, 9:30pm
- August 18 & 19, 9pm
- September 15 & 16, 8:30pm
- October 13 & 14, 7:30pm
Our monthly Astrophotographers Assemble events are geared toward night sky photographers (but anyone can attend). It’s an informal evening where shutterbugs – from novice to expert and everyone in between – are encouraged to come out and photograph the stars overhead. Events begin about an hour after dusk and last all night (if you can stay awake that long).
- April 22, 2023 – CANCELLED DUE TO CLOUDS
- May 20, 2023
- June 17, 2023
- July 15, 2023
- September 9, 2023
- October 7, 2023
You can see the moon from everywhere, but have you ever looked at it up close? Tim Trentadue will be at the Dark Sky Viewing Area to teach visitors bit about the moon, and you can take a up close look at the surface of the moon through his high powered telescope.
- July 29, 2023
- August 26, 2023
- September 23, 2023
This meteor shower is the northern hemisphere’s finest annual display of ‘shooting stars’. In 2023 it is visible from July 17th to August 24th , with the shower’s peak is during the overnight hours of August 12th/13th. If you watch the night sky for at least 15 minutes during its peak, you are guaranteed to see at least one meteor—likely more. The longer you watch, the more meteors will flash through the sky.
- Visible: July 17 – August 24, 2023
- Peak: Overnight hours of August 12/13, 2023
You can visit Dark Sky any night of the year to view the stars, as long as there is no cloud-cover. Here are the prime nights between the first and third quarter moon phases, when the sky is mainly unobstructed by the moon’s glow, making for amazing conditions for general stargazing and astrophotography.
The closer it is to the new moon, the better the view will be. Before you visit, please check the astronomer’s forecast websites to ensure the sky is mainly free of clouds.
If you can’t make it during these times, don’t worry, the view is still good and you’ll still be able to see many, many stars.
- January –> Prime: 14-28 | New Moon: 21
- February –> Prime: 13-27 | New Moon: 20
- March –> Prime: 14-28 | New Moon: 21
- April –> Prime: 13-27 | New Moon: 20
- May –> Prime: 12-27 | New Moon: 19
- June –> Prime: 10-26 | New Moon: 18
- July –> Prime: 9-25 | New Moon: 17
- August –> Prime: 8-24 | New Moon: 16
- September –> Prime: 6-22 | New Moon: 14
- October –> Prime: 6-21 | New Moon: 14
- November –> Prime: 5-20 | New Moon: 13
- December –> Prime: 5-19 | New Moon: 12
No reservations required (unless there is an event listed above).
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