Dark Sky Festival at the Sequoia Parks Conservancy for 2020 has been cancelled, obviously over COVID-19 concerns. For those unaware of what Dark Sky Festival is, it is an annual event in which participating national parks raise awareness of one of humanity’s most precious resources: The naked night sky. If you’ve never been away from city lights, then you’ve never seen night sky naked. Most of the stars, as well as other faint objects, can only be seen when our limited human vision has had several minutes to fully adjust. Also, most of these dim objects can only be seen in our peripheal field. Don’t freak out when you realize that the center of your vision appears to be completely blind! As the Central Valley’s largest dark sky festival, it also features other activities, such as being able to see through many telescopes pointed at specific regions in the sky.
In addition to dark sky festivals, there is also an orgnization called Dark Sky. They take action to promote the preservation of the night skies by use of responsible lighting, and have various certified “dark sky” locations (even in cities) to better promote awareness.
See the pictures I took at the 2019 Dark Sky Festival below (Taken with my Oneplus 7 Pro using Oneplus’s pro mode.)
I never knew we had such a festival. Thanks for the pics and the 411.
You’re welcome! It’s totally worth a trip; our national parks or forests are such a sight at night time. Plus, the additional activities such as the telescopes provide a breath taking view at some celestial objects.