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Best time to see the Milky Way in Joshua Tree National Park
May, June and July are the best months to see the Milky Way core at Joshua Tree National Park. The best week of 2027 is June 1 to 7, when the core is above 10 degrees in full darkness with the moon below the horizon for about 5.5 hours a night.
May, Jun and Jul
Best months for the core
27°
Highest point of the core, due south
27%
Average cloud amount over the year
85
Top core score out of 100, in June
The core clears 10 degrees during full darkness on most nights from February to October. In January, November and December it is out of reach, either too close to the Sun or too low in the dark.
Core score by month
| Month | Core score | Best week | Moon-free core hours a night | Average cloud |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 0 | Core not visible | 0 | 38% |
| February | 11 | February 10 to 16 | 0.7 | 37% |
| March | 33 | March 9 to 15 | 1.9 | 32% |
| April | 57 | April 6 to 12 | 3.1 | 26% |
| May | 81 | May 3 to 9 | 4.2 | 19% |
| June | 85 | June 1 to 7 | 5.5 | 15% |
| July | 73 | July 1 to 7 | 5.3 | 27% |
| August | 67 | August 1 to 7 | 3.4 | 22% |
| September | 34 | September 21 to 27 | 1.7 | 20% |
| October | 10 | October 1 to 7 | 0.5 | 24% |
| November | 0 | Core not visible | 0 | 31% |
| December | 0 | Core not visible | 0 | 39% |
Times are for the best seven nights in each month. Moon-free means the moon is below the horizon. The core counts as visible above 10 degrees in full darkness, when the Sun is more than 18 degrees below the horizon.
The best nights in 2027
- May: May 6 is the best night. The core is above 10 degrees and the moon is down from 12:03 am to 4:13 am, with the moon 1% lit that night.
- June: June 3 is the best night. The core is above 10 degrees and the moon is down from 10:13 pm to 3:43 am, with the moon 0% lit that night.
- July: July 1 is the best night. The core is above 10 degrees and the moon is down from 9:43 pm to 3:13 am, with the moon 5% lit that night.
Clock times are Pacific time with daylight saving applied. The best nights fall around the new moon, so the dates shift by about 11 days each year.
About the park
The National Park Service says the Milky Way "is at its best on a moonless summer night" at Joshua Tree. It names the parking lots at Quail Springs, Hidden Valley, Cap Rock and Ryan Mountain as stargazing areas, and recommends Pinto Basin Road between Cholla Cactus Garden and Cottonwood for roadside viewing. National Park Service.
How Joshua Tree National Park compares
Its best monthly core score of 85 ranks 2 of 54 national park units that can see the core. The highest is Lassen Volcanic National Park at 86, and the lowest is Voyageurs National Park at 13. Cloud at Joshua Tree National Park runs from 15% in June to 39% in December.
The score ranks months and parks. It is not a forecast for any night, and it leaves out local weather, smoke and light from nearby towns. How the core score works.
Nearest parks
Sources and method
- Sun, Moon and galactic centre positions calculated for the park's latitude and longitude from the low-precision formulas in Paul Schlyter's "Computing planetary positions", with the standard sidereal-time and horizon formulas. The code is checked against known events: new and full moons within 5 minutes, and the September equinox within 1 minute.
- Cloud: monthly mean cloud amount, 25-year Meteorological and Solar Monthly & Annual Climatologies (January 2001 - December 2025), from NASA POWER (version v2.10.1, source SYN1DEG), accessed October 19, 2026. Data obtained from NASA Langley Research Center POWER Project.
- Park facts: National Park Service.