Watch the Milky Way Shine Over California’s King Range in This Awesome Video
Robert Wick, photographer for the BLM, contributed this video to Space.com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.
The mountain peaks in King Range National Conservation Area, on the far northern California Coast, offer opportunities to get above the coastal fog for exceptional night sky viewing. Far from city lights, the area's dark skies enable viewers to clearly see the Milky Way and a seemingly countless number of stars. Summer nights with a new moon are the best time to view the heart of the Milky Way — look for it in the southern sky.
The King Range is one of more than 800 units of the National Conservation Lands, special areas managed for conservation by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. Most of these lands are located in the western United States, far from city light pollution. During the day, they offer opportunities for a diversity of outdoor activities for visitors willing to go off the beaten path. At night, they provide some of the best opportunities for star gazing anywhere in the United States. For further information on these spectacular lands visit the BLM special areas site.
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![A time-sequence composite of the August 21, 2017 total solar eclipse In this case, time runs from left to right, from the last filtered partial phases shot, through unfiltered shots of the rapidly changing last glimmer of sunlight disappearing behind the advancing Moon at “Second Contact,” forming “Baily’s Beads, to totality at centre] The sequence continues at right with the Sun emerging from behind the Moon in a rapid sequence at “Third Contact,” followed by two post-totality filtered partials to bookend the total eclipse images The C3 limb had a beautiful array of pink prominences.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/o3egecNDBubCJmmEbLT3Db-1280-80.jpg.webp)
