It's peak Turrell skyspace viewing season

Right now--the next two weeks--is the best time to go see The Three Gems, the James Turrell skyspace in San Francisco. The skyspace is like a little adobe house with a round hole in the roof through which you look at the sky. It's designed so that if you look at the sky as it's changing color and light, like at sunrise or sunset, you can experience some amazing visual effects. I wrote about it at length last year when I first learned how it worked, so if you want details go read Seeing the obvious in the Turrell skyspace.

The Three Gems is in the sculpture park in the De Young Museum. The De Young Museum closes at 5:15 pm and they usually start kicking people out 10 minutes before closing time. Thus, your opportunities to view The Three Gems at sunset are limited to the times when sunset is before 5:05 pm. The earliest sunsets in San Francisco, which are at 4:51 pm, give you the best chance to experience both sunset and a bit of the sky color transition.

The first 4:51 sunset is today, November 29. The last 4:51 sunset is December 12. By December 29, sunset is back to 5:00 pm. So go today. Or soon. Until and unless the De Young starts having special evening openings to view the skyspace, as they apparently once did, this is your best chance to see skyspace at sunset.

And, sadly, it's not possible to go see The Three Gems at sunrise, since the De Young opens at 9:30 am and sunrise is never that late in San Francisco.

How to get there #

It's late, I'm full of Thanksgiving carbs, so I'm just going to paste again what I wrote last time. The logistics remain the same:

The Turrell skyspace in San Francisco is located in the sculpture garden on the grounds of the De Young museum in Golden Gate Park. It doesn't cost anything to go into the sculpture garden, though you might have to go through the museum entrance and walk through the museum cafe and come out again. Sometimes you can just walk in by the cafe and other times you have to walk through the museum. Either way, it's free. The skyspace is a little hard to find, because it's all the way at the back of the garden and doesn't look like much from the outside. Look for signs along the path. Weekdays are especially nice if you can make it out, because it's quieter.

Have fun and bring warm clothes.

P.s. No, that's not a photo of or from the skyspace. It's a really cool sunset I saw this October when I went to the Ocean Beach because it was ridiculously hot. The pelicans symbolize getting yourself organized and taking a trip somewhere interesting, like the De Young sculpture garden.