Newport State Park is Wisconsin’s first, and currently only, certified Dark Sky Park.Īt the time of writing, the IDA’s list includes 183 places in 21 countries, with 120 of those being in the United States. The IDA aims to make the effort global, creating standards for certifying dark sky “reserves.” Flagstaff became their first certified Dark Sky Community on Oct. Today, Flagstaff’s own Dark Skies Coalition continues that fight for the dark side. In 1972, ordinances dictated that area lights had to be directed downward. Running afoul of the rule was a misdemeanor punishable by fines or even jail time. Recognizing the scientific importance and quality-of-life factors, Flagstaff residents, local government, and the scientific community came together, and in 1958, they enacted the first city ordinance aimed at light pollution, specifically, a prohibition of search-lights (common in advertising) that could be seen from more than a half-mile away. In 1930, Pluto was discovered by telescope from there, as was its moon Charon, decades later. Once known as the Skylight City, Flagstaff is home to both the Lowell and the U.S. But at the northern end of the state, a similar group got its start three decades before.
#Night sea of stars professional#
IDA was founded in 1988 by David Crawford, a professional astronomer, and Tim Hunter, an amateur astronomer, who were part of a star-gazing community frustrated by growing light interference with their observations. Even in the heart of a national park wilderness, one can look at the horizon and know where the next little town is. She’s referring to light pollution, the stray rays from street lamps and buildings that are collectively so powerful they cause the undersides of the clouds to glow. “Over 80 percent of the world’s population-and that increases to 99 percent of the United States and European populations-lives under polluted skies,” said Ashley Wilson, director of conservation at International Dark-Sky Association (IDA), a nonprofit based in Tucson, Arizona.
Now try to imagine children or even adults who have never even seen them. Invisible in the daytime but always there, pulling at our imaginations with their myriad gravities, the stars are part of our human heritage. That sea of stars has fascinated us from time immemorial, spawning gods and myths, holding the souls of our departed, and guiding us across land and sea through the darkness. One can lie flat on the earth and imagine looking down from a height at a sea filled with bright diamonds below and a riptide of light that is the Milky Way. Stars so bright and so close that they seemed just beyond my fingertips, and if I stared into them long enough, I felt drawn in and off balance. The park along the shore of Lake Michigan was as dark as midnight, I thought, until my eyes adjusted to the world without headlights, and then what I saw made me dizzy. I pulled into the Newport State Park parking lot in Door County, Wisconsin, a few hours after the late fall sunset when there wasn’t a soul around.
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