Lassen's Dark Night Sky

Summer 2013 I worked as a seasonal park ranger at Lassen Volcanic National Park.  There's a lot to love about Lassen, from the glacial lakes, dozens of volcanoes, hot springs and mudpots, to the diverse wildlife, hiking trails, and camping opportunities...but one of the least recognized (and most beautiful!) resources the park has to offer is its dark night sky.

We don't often think about a dark sky as a natural resource, but it is.

The dark night sky is worth protecting and ultimately worth celebrating, and the Lassen Dark Sky Festival is an annual event in the park that takes place in August during the Perseids meteor shower.

You can join amateur and professional astronomers each night to look through telescopes and see constellations, planets, and other deep sky objects.  There are also daytime and evening programs led by rangers and NASA scientists.

Check out the video above, which I produced for the park to help promote the event, and if you're going to be in northern California over the summer, the Lassen Dark Sky Festival is not to be missed!

STAR CHASERZ: This SUV is also a "mobile observatory" outfitted with a high-powered telescope that pops out of the roof and displayz what it seez on an LCD screen mounted in the back. It's a regular at the Festival and it rulez.