Death Valley National Park
Night Sky Viewing Telescopes
Night Sky Viewing Telescopes
Image courtesy of Jeremy Evans, evansdp.com
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National Monument
1933 National Park 1994 Park Size 3.4 million acres, 91% wilderness Annual Visitors 1.1 million Park Fee $30 Superintendent Mike Reynolds Park Partner Death Valley Natural History Association Location Inyo and San Bernardino Counties, CA, Nye County, NV |
Death Valley National Park offers some of the best opportunities for night sky viewing in the state of California due to its remoteness and sheer size. Death Valley’s night sky programs routinely receive triple the attendance of other interpretive programs. In an increasingly urban society, visitors to National Parks are ever more eager for opportunities to view constellations and other aspects of our universe that they cannot see from home.
Death Valley's telescopes were in a state of disrepair at the end of 2019. The Fund for People in Parks provided a grant to Death Valley Natural History Association to repair those scopes and purchase an additional scope to accommodate growing program numbers. Scopes were purchased, repaired, and put into rotation for ranger-led astronomy programs in the spring of 2020. Project Cost: $7,200 Project Completed: 2020 The Fund for People in Parks: $6,500 Death Valley Natural History Association: $700 Death Valley National Park is a gold tier International Dark Sky Park. There aren't a whole lot of those. That designation is based somewhat on how visible the stars are from your sight, of course, but just as importantly, it's about what you're doing to protect night skies and educate the public about them. Night sky programs draw the biggest crowds. These programs have an immediate impact on people. They come out here thinking they're going to learn what Orion and the Big Dipper are, but they walk away with the sense of, 'I can make a difference.'" 
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