Night Sky Tonight in Lone Pine

The live score above pulls today's forecast and runs it through StarCast's scoring model, factoring in cloud cover, moon illumination, Bortle class, humidity, and atmospheric transparency. Above 70 is an excellent night for astrophotography. Below 40, conditions are poor. The score updates daily.

Lone Pine sits at 3,700 feet in the southern Owens Valley directly below Mount Whitney — at 14,505 feet the highest peak in the contiguous United States. The Alabama Hills, just west of Lone Pine, are one of the most heavily photographed night sky foregrounds in California: rounded granite boulders and rock arches frame the Whitney massif and Sierra Nevada crest in compositions that have appeared in countless astrophotography portfolios and film and television productions for over a century. The Mobius Arch in particular — a narrow granite loop that frames Mount Whitney through its opening — has become one of the most recognizable Milky Way foregrounds in the American West. The Owens Valley's rain-shadow position east of the Sierra Nevada produces very low humidity, over 300 clear days annually on average, and Bortle Class 3 to 4 darkness immediately outside of town.

The galactic core is visible from late February through late October at Lone Pine's latitude. The Alabama Hills are accessible year-round and provide foreground in all seasons. The core rises over the southern Sierra and arcs to the west during peak season, with the Whitney crest serving as a foreground when the core rises in the east during spring months. Prime astrophotography season runs April through October, with the galactic core at its highest — and best positioned relative to the Alabama Hills — in June and July. The Owens Valley's climate reliability makes Lone Pine one of the most dependable dark sky locations in California.