Night Sky · Field Notes

Places in this lens

Select a place to open its note.

Abisko

Abisko · Norrbotten, Sweden 7 sites

There's a bench of open rock above Abisko where the ridge stops climbing and the sky simply takes over the rest of the view.
Aoraki-Mackenzie

Aoraki / Mount Cook · Canterbury, New Zealand 5 sites

Look up on a clear night here and the oldest thing in view is not the mountains, and not the ancient rock they are cut from.
Also seen through Ice & Glaciers
Big Bend

Big Bend National Park · Texas, USA 8 sites

Look up from the desert floor here on a clear, moonless night and you are looking at old light.
Also seen through Desert & Deep Time and Rivers & Canyons
Bryce Canyon

Bryce Canyon National Park · Utah, USA 8 sites

Everyone comes to Bryce for the rock.
Also seen through Desert & Deep Time
Cherry Springs

Cherry Springs State Park · Pennsylvania, USA 5 sites

Look up on a clear night at Cherry Springs and you are looking into the past.
Crater Lake

Crater Lake National Park · Oregon, USA 5 sites

At Crater Lake, the night sky has a rim.
Also seen through Volcanic
Craters of the Moon

Craters of the Moon National Monument · Idaho, USA 7 sites

The rock under your boots is among the youngest in the country, and the light overhead is among the oldest things your eyes can reach.
Also seen through Volcanic
Death Valley

Furnace Creek · California–Nevada, USA 8 sites

Death Valley earns its reputation in daylight.
Also seen through Desert & Deep Time
Grand Canyon

Grand Canyon Village · Arizona, USA 8 sites

Stand at the rim as the light goes, and the first thing that happens is the canyon disappears.
Also seen through Rivers & Canyons
Great Basin

Great Basin National Park · Nevada, USA 7 sites

After the last light drains off the peaks, wait twenty minutes and watch the sky fill back in.
Also seen through Desert & Deep Time
Haleakalā

Haleakalā Visitor Center · Hawaii, USA 5 sites

Haleakalā is a mountain built for looking outward.
Also seen through Volcanic
Jasper

Municipality of Jasper · Alberta, Canada 5 sites

Jasper's night begins with its mountains.
Also seen through Ice & Glaciers
Joshua Tree

Joshua Tree National Park · California, USA 5 sites

Joshua Tree's night sky begins with open desert and dark granite.
Also seen through Desert & Deep Time
La Palma

Carretera Roque de Los Muchachos · Canary Islands, Spain 5 sites

Somewhere on the drive up, the world turns grey and close, and then you come out the top of it.
Also seen through Volcanic
Mauna Kea

Mauna Kea Access Road · Hawaii, USA 7 sites

Air holds water, and water blurs starlight.
Also seen through Volcanic
NamibRand Nature Reserve

NamibRand Nature Reserve · Hardap, Namibia 7 sites

Stand on any high point in NamibRand after sunset and count how many directions have a glow on the horizon.
Natural Bridges

Natural Bridges National Monument · Utah, USA 5 sites

Wait for the last of the daylight to drain out of the canyons, and something much older takes its place.
Also seen through Desert & Deep Time
Salar de Uyuni

Salar de Uyuni · Potosí, Bolivia 5 sites

Salar de Uyuni is famous for what it does to daylight — a sheet of white salt so flat and so vast that a little rain turns it into a mirror.
Teide

Parque Nacional del Teide · Canary Islands, Spain 8 sites

Most of what blurs a night sky sits low, in the damp, dusty air near the sea.
Also seen through Volcanic
The Atacama

Reserva Nacional Los Flamencos · Antofagasta, Chile 7 sites

The starlight that reaches you here is old.
Also seen through Desert & Deep Time
The Tatacoa Desert

The Tatacoa Desert · Huila, Colombia 7 sites

Stand in the Tatacoa Desert after dark and the first thing you notice is what's missing.
Wadi Rum

قرية وادي رم · Aqaba, Jordan 5 sites

The rock underfoot in Wadi Rum is about half a billion years old, and the light overhead is older still.
Also seen through Desert & Deep Time