It’s a crowded night at McDonald Observatory, where people crowd around high-powered telescopes as a storm approaches from the east.
Residents and visitors from across the country come to the site to experience a free and vanishing natural resource: one of the darkest night skies in the world.
From the top of the observatory in the Davis Mountains in far West Texas — about 2,000 meters above sea level — you can see the expanse of desert floor and the night sky almost seems within reach. Under the starry canopy of this night, couples embrace with their heads tilted toward the sky, and children hop from telescope to telescope to glimpse the celestial spectacle.
“It’s just incredible to look up and see all these different constellations,” said Maya Howitt. The girl is with her parents, Emma and Cameron Howitt, and the three take turns peering through a telescope pointed at a pair of stars in the “handle” of the Big Dipper. “I feel like I’m dreaming every time I look up.”
About 75,000 people attend the observatory’s “star parties” throughout the year and enjoy the region’s notoriously dark sky.
“It makes me feel kind of small — not insignificant, but small, just part of this whole cosmos we live in,” said Cameron Howitt.
Recent studies show that the night sky over North America is getting brighter every year — on average, researchers say, you can see about 10% fewer stars than the previous year.
In recent years, astronomers and conservationists in the region have worked with cities and counties on lighting ordinances to reduce light pollution. They have also convinced oil and gas operators in the neighboring Permian Basin — a major source of light pollution — to adopt dark sky-friendly lighting on drilling rigs and gas plants.
In the spring of 2022, this region was designated a “dark sky reserve,” meaning it’s an area where not only is the sky dark, but there are also policies in place to help preserve the night sky.
“An entire sky reserve”
And the reserve here, nicknamed the “Greater Big Bend International Dark Sky Reserve,” is the largest of its kind in the world. The reserve spans 38,000 square kilometers that cover the entire Big Bend area and a strip of northern Mexico — an area larger than Massachusetts.
“We’re protecting an entire sky reserve,” said Stephen Hummel, McDonald Observatory’s dark skies coordinator, operated by the University of Texas. “You can stand in the middle, and everywhere you can see along the horizon still makes up part of the dark sky reserve.”
Hummel said the reason it’s important for the observatory to preserve the night sky is quite simple: you can’t study the stars if you can’t see them.
“If we completely lose the night sky, it’s like losing information worth a natural history museum,” said Hummel, who grew up in the Dallas-Fort Worth area under what he calls a “light-polluted sky.”
“If we can’t preserve the dark sky here, that’s pretty much it. There’s really no other place on Earth we can go to now to be sure we’ll have a good view of the night sky.”
And that “good view” isn’t just a benefit for research; dark skies are important for the local economy and crucial for the environment and wildlife as well.
But despite all its benefits, protecting the dark sky has its obstacles.
Amber Harrison of DarkSky International, a U.S.-based nonprofit, said some people believe having a dark sky means having no light.
“We’re not talking about turning off the lighting,” said Harrison, who lives in one of the darkest pockets of the reserve. “Lighting isn’t bad; it’s how we use it.”
That means here, you’ll see amber lights and shielded fixtures that keep the light on the ground, which, along with other efforts, goes a long way toward maintaining the darkness of the night sky.
A star-studded lifestyle
At a star party in Alpine, Texas, local musicians sing songs while eager stargazers like Jodie Kramer spread blankets over the desert grass.
This region, from Alpine and Fort Davis to Marfa and Terlingua, prides itself on its dark sky reserve designation. The courthouse in Alpine is surrounded by fixtures that mitigate light pollution. Murals on the main street of town depict wildlife resting under the comfort of a dark sky. In Marfa, people can borrow a telescope from the public library, and it’s not uncommon for people to drive rural roads to stargaze on their own.
“A dark sky is something not everyone gets to experience,” said Kramer, who has attended “several star parties.”
The region’s starry sky is what drew Kramer and her husband, Alan, to this remote area.
The two are from the Houston area, where Jodie Kramer said “you can barely see the stars.”
After a vacation in Big Bend, they fell in love with the region and now can regularly see celestial wonders like the Milky Way from the front yard of their home in Fort Davis.
“We came here because it’s our happy place; there’s something magical about it,” said Jodie Kramer. “I mean, there’s nothing like it.”
Source: npr.org by Carlos Morales