Night Sky Tonight in Torrey

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.

Torrey is a small community of fewer than 200 people sitting at 6,800 feet at the western entrance to Capitol Reef National Park — Utah's least-visited national park and one of its most extraordinary dark sky destinations. Capitol Reef is an International Dark Sky Park with Bortle Class 1 to 2 conditions across much of its backcountry, and the Waterpocket Fold — a 100-mile wrinkle in the Earth's crust exposing half a billion years of geology — provides one of the most distinctive astrophotography foregrounds on the Colorado Plateau. The Hickman Bridge arch, Fruita orchards, and the carved canyon petroglyphs of the Fremont people are all accessible night photography subjects. Torrey's tiny scale means its own light footprint is minimal. To the north, Boulder Mountain rises to 11,000 feet with alpine lakes, and to the south, the remote Escalante canyon system extends for miles in pristine darkness.

The galactic core is visible from late February through late October. Capitol Reef's varied canyon and arch terrain provides compelling foreground at every point in the season. Prime astrophotography season runs April through October, with the Waterpocket Fold being particularly dramatic from May through August when the core climbs above the tilted canyon walls. Utah's desert climate produces exceptional annual clear-night frequency, and Torrey's relative isolation from even regional light sources means the horizon is dark in all directions. This is one of the best dark sky base camps on the Colorado Plateau for astrophotographers who want both park access and a full range of accommodation options.