Sky’s The Limit Observatory

Jan 18

Upon entering or exiting The Joshua Tree National Park via the east entrance, in Twenty-Nine Palms, you will pass Sky’s the Limit Observatory and Nature Center. Make note of this place as you plan your adventure. If you are visiting to star gaze and soak up the night sky, you might want to pack a meal, park and eat dinner under the stars. If you are a real fan of the solar system this is where you bring your telescope to observe the colossal displays in the galaxy.

The Observatory Dome, and restrooms are only available during public events, but the campus is always open for nature walks, stargazing, and for setting up your own telescope. QR codes posted around campus, when scanned with a smartphone, will take you to a text or audio explanation of what you are seeing. A docent is usually present on Saturday mornings to set up the solar scope for a safe view of the Sun and give tours of the Orrery (a true-to-scale and true-to-position model of the Solar System at a scale of 20 billion to 1). For more information visit Sky’s The Limit.

If you drive past during the day, don’t miss out on local artist Ben Allenoff’s sun dial and participatory installation Woven Windows. For the Woven Windows project, veterans, active duty military, and civilians came together over three weekends to learn about the human and natural history of the land, to weave a monumental sculpture using plant material culled from the environment, attach personal notes and tokens to the sculpture, and silently witness the rising full moon (in eclipse) through the windows they created.

GASSHO 2 which was transported from Philadelphia to the Observatory, is adjustable so that the sun dial and solar calendar functions can be accurate at any latitude. The stone pyramid embodies the way gravity turns mountains to stones and then sand, which eventually compresses and becomes rock again, and rises up in the form of mountains - time is simultaneously cyclical and linear. For more on the artist visit Ben Allanoff.