Humboldt County, California I remember while camping with my folks as a kid how the Milky Way stretched so prominently across the night sky. It was a special feature of the night that I never saw from the bright lights of home, but it was always ...
Stargazing Season: Milky Way & Perseid Meteors
Humboldt County, California. Stargazing season is upon us, when the spectacular Milky Way is visible immediately after dark, soaring from horizon to horizon, and the Perseid meteor shower peak is approaching. Of course, one can watch the stars on ...
Eclipse of the Super Flower Blood Moon
Humboldt County, California The full moon of May, 2021, called the flower moon, was a real doozy: it was a super moon, an eclipse, and a blood Moon — the first Super Blood Flower Moon into which I can ever remember having tuned. So how does it ...
Great Conjunction: Saturn Overtakes Jupiter
Humboldt County, California Racing around the sun like slot cars on an elliptical track, Earth was on an inside line and coming around fast. Jupiter and Saturn were in view ahead. Jupiter was taking a much wider line, and Saturn was lazily ...
Perseid Meteors 2020: A Comet’s Tale
Humboldt County, California Currently speeding out from the sun after its last visit to the Solar System’s inner reaches in 1992, Comet Swift-Tuttle leaves a trail of debris in its path. Comets are made of frozen gasses, dust, and rock; as sun’s ...
The Arc of Night over Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park
Humboldt County, California It was approaching 12:30 a.m. at Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park as the Core of our galaxy began to crest the redwoods beyond the meadow, anchoring the band of Milky Way that stretched across the sky from horizon to ...
Visualize the Night
Humboldt County, California “Roads? Where we’re going, we don’t need... roads.” - Doc, Back to the Future II. One of the more challenging visualizations for me is to imagine looking at the Solar System from a point above it in outer space, far ...
Eel River Stargazer
Humboldt County, California Not far from anywhere on the North Coast the dark skies and solitude of nature quietly await. People travel great distances to come here to camp and hike in it, enjoying the beauty of our forests, beaches, rivers, and ...
Eel River Overlook
Humboldt County, California From a protected hollow high above the river my companions and I looked out over a world bathed in starlight, the galactic core of our galaxy reaching upward from the southern horizon and complementing the curve of ...