Make for the desert and the twinkle-twinkle ‘Full Moon Festival'

DESERT SPARKLE? It's a thing of beauty, as anyone who loves the Death Valley Dark Sky Festival knows. The wintertime gathering just packed up the telescopes, but there are other astronomical events on the 2025 desert calendar. Of course, simply stepping outside in the Mojave, or Pioneertown, or near the Salton Sea on most cloud-lite nights of the year have a way of delivering that profound, one-with-the-universe kind of vibe. But if you'll be in the Twentynine Palms/Joshua Tree neck o' the woods — or neck o' the desert, more accurately — in mid-April, which is, yes, around the time of the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, you may want to "alight" at the Full Moon Festival, a weekend sparkler presented by Sky's the Limit Observatory & Nature Center.

OUR LOVELY LUNAR SATELLITE... is the celebrity in the spotlight, or rather the moonlight, and opportunities to savor the springtime show by gazing through a telescope are on the schedule. So are a host of uplifting art activities, including "Mindful Moonlight Drawing," "Desert Botanical Painting," activities for the youngsters, and a dance performance. And sauntering through the solar system? You are invited to stroll The Orrery, a "scale model" of the planetary system we call home. There's a lot to moon over, so take a look at all that's aglow at during the 2025 fest.