Walking by the Giants

In a clear mid-summer night the TWAN photographer walks through some of the largest trees on the planet in Sequoia National Park of California. The area is most famous for its Giant Sequoia trees, including the Twin Sequoias that appear here. Sequoias grow to an average height of 50-85 m and 6-8 m in diameter. Record trees have been measured to be about 95 m (311 ft) in height and 17 m (57 ft) in diameter. The oldest known Giant Sequoia is 3500 years old and many of the largest are over 2000 years old.

In the sky constellation Cygnus, the Swan, with the bright star Deneb is in the upper right along the plane of the galaxy. The famous North America Nebula in Cygnus is also visible as a red patch near the middle. It is about 2200 light years away. The light we are seeing from it today belongs to the time when some of these giant trees started to grow.