The night sky always intrigues me, I fall in love with the stars even more every time I see them. I always had fascination with stars, galaxies, constellations and my dad used to read me information from world books, and somehow I used to enjoy them more than other bedtime stories. Many years later, when I moved to California, I started going around places, visiting national parks and shooting some of the best stargazing experiences of my life.
Here are top 5 locations to do stargazing and astrophotography around California.
1. Davenport, Bay Area
The town of Davenport, just north of Santa Cruz has some great beaches and unusual compositions for a perfect milky way photo. The “fin” at Shark Fin Cove and the graffiti swing by the beach are two famous locations for photographers in this area.
2. Kings Canyon National park
Kings Canyon National Park is an American national park in the southern Sierra Nevada and has one of the clearest night skies to view the Milky Way. There's no one spot as such, basically you can view it from anywhere in the park, away from the light pollution. You'll be left breathless by the "milky", faintly glowing, gorgeous band of stars.
3. Yosemite National Park
With its solid rock formations, mesmerizing waterfalls, this park already feels like out of the world. It is also an outstanding place for astrophotographers and other night-sky spectacles. Basically the possibilities for compositions are endless here but my personal favorite view of milky way is from the top of the park, at Glacier point. One of my recent visits was so mind-blowing that I could capture the whole arch of milky way over the half-dome.
4. Big Sur
While not the darkest place ever, Big Sur is one of Central California's most stunning coastal regions. It is far away from any major towns, and doesn't have light pollution, it's the perfect place to set up camp and stargaze.
5. Joshua Tree National Park
Designated as an International Dark Sky location in 2017, this is an outstanding place for stargazing. With its bizarre tree structures, rock formations, this park already feels a bit like Mars. We went there during meteor shower and could see countless meteors coming from the gigantic milky way over us - definitely one of the most magical nights!!
