Pigeon Point Lighthouse Annual Relighting November 18, 2006

California State Parks, Pigeon Point Hostel, and the United States Coast Guard will commemorate the 134th Anniversary of the first lighting of Pigeon Point Lighthouse. This annual event features an open house in the historic fog signal building from 10am until 7pm. The highlight of the evening is from 6-8pm when the historic lighthouse’s Fresnel Lens lights up the sky.

You can see an example of what the lens looks like when it lights up here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ccilker/251622108/

Update: I've just discovered this weekend is also the time to see the Leonid Meteor shower in North America:

"The annual Leonid meteor shower could produce a strong outburst this weekend for residents of the North America and Western Europe.

A brief surge of activity is expected begin around 11:45 p.m. ET Saturday, Nov. 18. In Europe, that corresponds to early Sunday morning, Nov. 19 at 4:45 GMT. The outburst could last up to two hours.

At the peak, people in these favorable locations could see up to 150 shooting stars per hour, or more than two per minute."

That corresponds to 8:45pm California time and the San Mateo Coast could be a great place to capture meteors on camera.
(see more about this here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/strongleonidmeteorshowerexpectedthisweekend )

Official Website: http://www.parks.ca.gov/events/event_detail.asp?id=1297