LIFE: Starry Night at a International Dark Sky Park

Source

Have you ever really looked at the nights sky? Like really looked, miles from nowhere, away from all the light pollution? If you do you'll certainly start looking at and considering the sky and the universe in a new light. Now don't get me wrong I know nothing about the sky, stars or the planets aside from the basics we all learn in school but even I have come to truly appreciate the wonders of the sky.

If you have your nose to the ground when it comes to science or even rethinking public space and how it comes to be lit you might have heard discussions about light pollution and it's effects not only on the world around us but upon nocturnal creatures. Living in Metro Detroit there is a constant orange haze to the nights sky and it's rare that you ever spot more then a couple of stars or even a planet on any given night and this is increasingly true in many of the places - cities to towns that we live in. This is why Dark Sky Parks are having a growing and important presence.

As I previously mentioned last week we drove up to Mackinaw City to visit the Headlands - Michigan's Intentional Dark Sky Park one of only 11 in the world (you'll find the others in Utah, Pennsylvania, Washington, New Mexico, Ohio, Texas, California, Scotland and Hungry) - places which are protected, mitigate light pollution, build awareness of the value of true dark skies both culturally and within science while offering the most incredible skies you'll ever experience.

While open all day, the Headlands comes to life at night, as you approach you start to realise just how incredibly dark real darkness is - there's no street lights to guide you or your car down to the viewing area and with your own torch you slowly make your way through the bush to the waters edge. You gaze up and you just see star after star after star, the sky - the universe above you just seems endless, you realise just how small we all are in the greater scheme of things. This place, this tiny insight into the universe above us, truly made me appreciate the need to understand it.

I could not recommend enough visiting any of the International Dark Sky Parks, or if you don't live close, just getting out into the countryside, you don't need fancy equipment, just darkness and the time to stare up and look. I wouldn't even suggest taking a camera - while a powerful DSRL might be able to capture it, this isn't a time for looking at something through a screen/lens. It's time to experience in the right now.

It'll be an experience that will really stay with you.

Have you ever been to a Dark Sky Park? Have any star gazing tips?