Protecting Our Dark Skies

“Are we doing enough to protect our dark skies?”  That’s the audio lead-in used for this mini-documentary on KSL-TV. John Hollenhorst (KSL's Science & Nature Specialist) and videographer, Ken Fall followed us (Charli, Teresa, Joe, Michael and I) around this past March in Bryce Canyon National Park at 3:00 AM. It was about 20ºF, and we’re all bundled up, so don't expect a fashion show! But you will see some beautiful Milky Way skies, with stunning western foregrounds; and you'll learn how the park service and some cities like Flagstaff, AZ are working to protect our dark skies from light pollution.

Finding Darkness is a quest I am on to help find and protect our dark skies. These are places where we can still clearly see the night stars. My goal is not to be an alarmist about light pollution, but to promote the use and benefits of dark sky areas as sanctuaries for creativity and solace —areas where we can remove the noise from our busy lives, to think, dream and be inspired.

A Santa Fe astronomer has said, "...as light pollution spreads, we are slowly losing one of the oldest and most universal links to all of human history." As late as 1889, Van Gogh was able to experience and paint his famous “Starry Night”. If he were alive today, there would be nothing in the night skies over Saint Rémy, France to inspire him, as the Milky Way can no longer be seen from there.

Click images to enlarge

Starry Night Quotes is a 2018 wall calendar I am publishing to beautify your home or office and help people become more aware of the importance of preserving our dark sky areas. You can learn more about dark sky sanctuaries by watching or reading the KSL documentary and by visiting the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) website. $5.00 from every calendar sale on my Etsy website will be donated to IDA.

"Starry Night Quotes" is a 2018 wall calendar with emphasis on preserving our dark sky sanctuaries.

A vertical Milky Way and strong airglow. Photographed at Jackson Lake, with the Teton Range in Grand Teton National Park. One of my images featured in the KSL mini-documentary about preserving our dark skies.

Watch it here: Here's the complete transcript and the 5-minute video of the program that aired on April 25th: Dark Skies: 'Half the park is after dark'.

Popular Links: How to Shoot the Milky Way • Post Processing NightScapes • Workshops and PhotoWalks • Tutorials and Tips • Overcoming Lens Coma • Video Hangout with my Friends

Finding Darkness

These Easter Island look-a-likes are in the southwestern United Stakes. They are sandstone hoodoos in the Devil's Garden area in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah.  Light painted from behind for accent and separation. This is one of the darkest regions in the USA (a Bortle-1). The stars were so brilliant! One exposure with a Canon 5D Mark III, using a Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 lens • f/2.8 • 20 sec • ISO 8000 ~ © Royce Bair

"Finding Darkness" is a new quest I have to help others locate and photograph some of the darkest "NightScape" skies in the world.

An invitation: I invite photographers everywhere to join me on this pursuit by tagging your darkest astro-landscapes with the hashtag: #FindingDarkness — on Instagram, Facebook or Google+.

Please include the location of your favorite dark sky NightScapes and any other interesting background information in your photo description. To qualify, locations should be on a Bortle Scale of Class 3 or lower. You can check to see if your favorite area meets this criteria by referring to this Dark Sky Finder map of the United States. Bortle Scale Class 3 areas are in blue, Class 2 areas are in gray, and Class 1 areas are in dark gray. Use this Dark Site Finder map for all other locations in the world.

Showcasing your images: From time-to-time, I will feature some of the best images on my @RoyceBairPhoto Instagram account, complete with credits and links to the photographer. The featured images will also appear on my Facebook fan page.

Not-so-dark areas. Not everyone has the opportunity to visit "Truly Dark Areas" within a Bortle Class 1 or 2 Scale. Most of us live in and around light polluted metropolitan areas. Yet, even in these circumstances, there are often nearby regions that one can do acceptable starry night photography. Please help me find acceptable NightScape Photo Walk locations in your locale.

Bristlecone Pine and Milky Way from Bristlecone Loop Trail, Bryce Canyon National Park (This is a Bortle Scale Class 1 area)  ~ © Royce Bair

Starry Night Quotes is a 2018 wall calendar you can order to beautify your home or office and help preserve our dark sky sanctuaries.

Searching for Darkness - Using 'Dark Sky Finder' to locate the Darkest Skies for Night Photography

Big Dipper stars and meteor over Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah ~ © Royce Bair

Trying to find a sky dark enough to reveal the stars in the night sky can be challenging when you live near a large city. The high light pollution from the city lights overpowers all but the brightest stars. For this reason, I often drive west of Salt Lake City, where I live, and into to the west desert. The famous Bonneville Salt Flats are located about 90 miles west of SLC, just off of I-80, about 10 miles before you reach the border town of Wendover, Nevada. In the above photo, I was able to capture a meteor during the Quadrantid meteor shower, as it streaked between the Big Dipper and Polaris.

How far away from the city lights does one have to travel to find skies dark enough to photograph the stars? Typically, I tell people that you must be about 50 to 75 miles (80 to 120 km) from a large city (over 100,000 population), and 5 to 10 miles (8 to 16 km) from a smaller town (under 10,000). That can be difficult in many of the populated areas of the world.

The Earth at Night - "Earth's Lights" - a composite satellite image from NASA

Here's a closer view of just North and Central America

A Useful Tool: A more scientific approach is to use a website I found recently called, "Dark Sky Finder". Jonathan Tomshine has incorporated light pollution information from the NOAA National Geophysical Data Center and layered it over Google Maps! Here a screenshot of the Salt Lake City metro area and the desert area, west to Wendover, NV. (If you click and enlarge the map, you can see the Bonneville Salt Flats along I-80, just before you get to Wendover.):

Dark Sky Finder screenshot of SLC metro and west desert to Wendover, Nevada

The color coding indicates the sky darkness of area: the white and red layers over the city center are pretty much "white-out" areas! The orange areas over the city suburbs aren't much better. These areas allow one to barely see only the brightest stars. The yellow areas have somewhat acceptable viewing conditions. The green areas are acceptable for star photography, but the blue and dark grey areas are best. As with all Google maps, you can toggle between this "Map" view and the "Satellite" and "Hybrid" view. Unfortunately, the NOAA light pollution data is only available for the USA.

Technical data for the top photo: The NightScape of the stars over the Bonneville Salt Flats was taken on January 4, 2011 at 3:45 A.M with a Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, using a Canon EF 15mm f2.8 Fisheye lens @ f3.5, 30 seconds, ISO 2500.

Find Darkness in a High Population Area: Check out this article about photographer, Jack Fusco, and how he overcame the challenges of light pollution in New Jersey!

Royce Bair is the editor of this blog and the photographer of the top image. Here is my gallery of NightScape images. My schedule of workshops, tutorials, and other events is available here.