This park is a little south east of the Sequoia National Forest. I was there in early November, and it was almost empty of visitors. In fact, one day, I was the only one in the park. The evening before, there were only six or seven (out of 50) camp sites being used. I'm sure it is more heavily used during summer vacation season, because it really is beautiful.
This was a great place to setup the telescope. The lack of trees, and the dark sky, made it perfect. The moon was just past "new", so it was only a sliver, and it set before the sky got really dark. But I enjoyed looking at the few craters that were on that sliver while it lasted. Venus was half a disk, which is fun to look at, and realize that it's a globe reflecting the sun's rays, just like the moon. Of course, that's the case for all planets, but only Venus and Mercury show phases like the moon, because they are closer to the sun than we are. |
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The arrow in the upper right points to my lone RV. |
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