Hello

I live In Los Angeles California and I am trying to find a location that is dark where you can see the milky way and lot's of stars. I would probably stay in a motel overnight so I am looking for a good loaction where I can get up at 2:00 in the morning and drive a little ways from the motel and have a good dark viewing location thats safe and easy to acess. I'm thinking somewhere in the desert or posibly in the mountains near the desert but not sure of a good location.

 Thanks

You may want to have a look at http://www.observingsites.com/ds_ca.htm and the dark sites listed on the Clear Sky Chart for California.  I know that a lot of California amateur astronomers go to Joshua Tree National Park to observe and image.

http://www.stateparks.com/joshua_tree.html

Dave Mitsky

Yep, Joshua Tree is the place to be ... you can camp overnight and the rangers are astronomer-friendly.

If you want a motel, try Yucca Valley or Twentynine Palms.

I have been there before but not really at night I love joshua tree it's so amazing.

How dark is joshua tree in terms of the dimmest objects you can see with the naked eye. And is there a good location where you can park a car and setup some chairs. I will be mainly viewing the leonid meteor shower in novemeber but I might take my 6" dobsonian with me since I have not been able to use it in dark skies yet. 

 One last thing. I don't do well with spiders and I know they have the desert tarantula in joshua tree how likely are they to be out during the night in november.

Let's put it this way: you can see the Milky Way!

The skies are very clear and dark to the E, NE, SE, S, and SW. They're less dark to the West (duh) a Palm Springs is the big offender there, but on a clear night you can also see the skyglow over San Bernadino.

I think you'd really like it. All the camping areas feature wide open spaces where you can set up a chair and your telescope. Some of the areas are a bit more closed in than others, but you pretty much have your pick of where to set up. Ask at the Park HQ where the astronomers go and they'll point it out on a map.

Thanks this is def one of the top places on my list to consider and I will check into yucca valley or twenty nine palms for a motel. Thanks

Has anyone heard of canebrake it's 8 miles west of onyx in the kern valley. At the corner of route 178 and canebrake road. 

I was looking on cleardarksky.com and they gave it a black rating which according to the bortle scale is the darkest location you can achieve. Has anyone had experience with this viewing site and is it truly that dark.

Possibly you may want to charter a sea vessel and go out far enough so that it is black.

Bruth