Dark Sky Festival – Lake Kaweah Star Party Assist Request – Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026, 8-10 PM

This coming weekend, Friday – Sunday, September 11-13, 2026, the Sequoia Parks Conservancy (SPC) will be holding their 13th Annual Dark Sky Festival in & around the Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks.

I encourage all TAA & UPHS members to share this information with their family & friends. Having this Annual Dark Sky Festival here in our neighboring National Parks is a gift to be treasured by our astronomical community, and we should support it as much as possible.

For this year’s Dark Sky Festival, the TAA has been asked to help host one of the three-star parties to take place at this year’s Dark Sky Festival.

This Lake Kaweah Star Party will be held on Sunday, Sept. 13th, 2026, 8-10 PM at the Lemon Hill Recreation Area at Lake Kaweah, on California State Route 198, in the foothills, 20 miles east of Visalia, CA.

It will be more accessible and an easier commute for most valley residents.  The Sequoia Parks Conservancy (SPC) will operate a couple of digital telescopes, binocular stargazing table, and large group naked eye stargazing.  The TAA has been asked to seek volunteers from our membership to bring & setup our telescopes, as they won’t have any optical telescopes there.

Lake Kaweah visitor center has a lower and upper parking area.  The Army Corp of Engineers will turn off the area’s parking lights, and visitors would be directed to park in the lower parking area and walk the 2 min walk up to the upper parking lot, where we would set up.

TAA volunteers will begin our setup at the Lemon Hill Recreation Area at Lake Kaweah upper parking area around 6 PM.

If any TAA/UPHS members want to join us at this public star party event, please use the following link, to sign up as a volunteer.

Please help support the Sequoia/Kings Canyon Dark Sky Festival and the TAA this Sunday evening at Lake Kaweah .