Dark skies advocates seek celestial views away from human-made lights

Earlier this month, northern lights became visible in parts of North Carolina. In the Triad, city lights made them more difficult to see. Light pollution tends to obscure the features of the night sky. But there are places where it’s possible to get a good view of space with the naked eye.

Dan Caton is a Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Appalachian State University. He opens a door that leads to a round room with a white-domed top that’s filled with colorful winks from computers and electronics. This is the heart of the Dark Sky Observatory, which he directs. It’s located deep in the mountains between Boone and North Wilkesboro. 

Caton is part of a movement that seeks to educate people about the downsides of light pollution and preserve places — like this — where the stars, planets and other phenomena of space can be seen by the naked eye.

"I think everyone, at least once in their life, needs to get out to a dark sky," he says. "If you grew up in a big city, you haven't seen a dark sky. About 85% I think, of Americans have never seen the Milky Way, which is right overhead this time of the year. And you can’t see it if you have modest light pollution. But if you get out in a dark sky, it's a pretty amazing sight."

There are threats to dark skies, he says, as city streetlamps push further and further into the countryside, a growing number of satellites crisscross the sky, and unnatural lights spread their footprint. Caton says he worries that people are becoming less connected to the environment.

"What I see in the future, I realized recently, is that we may be heading to a point where it's like the national parks: you have areas that are cordoned off and have animals and neat stuff. And between the national parks, not so much," he says.

On a recent October evening, the dome shutter opens at the Dark Sky Observatory, and the telescope zooms in on its target.

Every month, the venue hosts a community night where visitors can look through the telescope and see whatever astronomical features are in the sky at that time. 

Visible on this night is the prominent star, Vega, a ring nebula and a clear view of Saturn. But the highlight is the passing of the Comet Tsuchinshan-Atlas as it makes its way across the sky to the west. 

From the mountaintop, the star field is more brightly illuminated and detailed, streaked by the faint glow of the Milky Way.

Cory Dalton of Jefferson is among the handful of astronomy enthusiasts who have set up telescopes and cameras they’re sharing with visitors outside of the observatory. 

For him, this is a local stop. But Dalton has traveled the country in search of dark skies, going to places like West Virginia and Utah to get as clear a view as he can of the stars and planets. 

He says saving the night skies is part of preserving our human heritage.

“We’ve lived, for a really long time, as a species, getting up with the sunrise and going to bed with the sunset," he says. "In a very, very literally blink of an eye of our history, we've deviated from that, and I think it's having detrimental effects on our health.”

Science backs him up. Studies show light pollution can disrupt our daily rhythm, leading to sleep disorders, and an increased risk of depression and other mood disorders.

The mountains aren’t the only places where dark skies still exist. 

Sabrina Godin is the lead interpretation and education park ranger at Cape Lookout National Seashore on North Carolina’s Outer Banks. It’s been designated as an International Dark Sky Park.

She says light pollution can be harmful to the environment by disrupting the movement of bats, birds and turtles. And there’s also a historical component to protecting the celestial views.

"Before there was GPS and things like that, you had to navigate using the night sky and finding out where the North Star is and things like that," she says. "So specifically for our coastal communities, we found that it's really important to include that history." 

Caton, the Appalachian State astronomer, says people interested in the night sky don’t need a fancy telescope to get started. He says a good pair of binoculars with a magnification of 10 by 80 could do just as well and is more affordable.

“That's about equivalent to what Galileo used to make all his initial discoveries, was a two-inch-ish diameter telescope and about that kind of magnification,” he says.

For those chasing dark skies, the National Park Service has an online map that highlights prime locations across the country.