Astro Tourism Stars Above, Earth Below: Astronomy TYLER NORDGREN As a professional <strong>as</strong>tronomer, my luggage is covered with buttons and stickers from places familiar to <strong>as</strong>tronomy enthusi<strong>as</strong>ts, sites such <strong>as</strong> Palomar, Mauna Kea, Siding Spring, and Arecibo. But for the p<strong>as</strong>t fi ve years my <strong>as</strong>tronomical career h<strong>as</strong> taken me to new destinations with names like Yellowstone, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, and Glacier. As artifi cial lights creep toward our observatories and make it incre<strong>as</strong>ingly diffi cult to see stars from urban are<strong>as</strong>, the national parks that protect our l<strong>as</strong>t unspoiled wilderness by day are also protecting our sky at night. Tonight I’ve driven to Great B<strong>as</strong>in National Park in central Nevada. Created around Lehman Caves National Monument in 1986, Great B<strong>as</strong>in is one of the newest national parks, and its isolation invokes a feeling of having stepped back into yesteryear. Instead of long lines of cars at multiple entry stations, there’s a single lonely road leading up into mountains that are dotted with <strong>as</strong>pen trees and that still carry patches of snow in July. This feeling of having stepped back in time continues after nightfall. As far <strong>as</strong> my eyes can see to the distant mountains, there’s not a single city light dome visible at all, and only a dozen or so house lights shine faintly in the distance. I can’t remember when I l<strong>as</strong>t saw a sky <strong>this</strong> dark. Even with the lights of my GPS and d<strong>as</strong>hboard streaming into my eyes, I can still discern detail in the Milky Way that normally takes forever to te<strong>as</strong>e out of the sky’s background glow. In Great B<strong>as</strong>in National Park, like the mountains, caves, <strong>as</strong>pens, and glacier that attract visitors by day, the galactic plane overhead is preserved the way everyone used to see it. 26 May 2012 sky & telescope Star Parties and Festivals Current estimates suggest that 60% of Americans no longer live where the Milky Way is even faintly visible, and worldwide roughly half of the children born in 2012 are expected to never see it at all. U.S. national parks are among the greatest locations guaranteed to reveal the splendor of the night sky. The public h<strong>as</strong> noticed <strong>this</strong>. Surveys reveal that a starfi lled sky is now <strong>as</strong> integral to a visitor’s park experience <strong>as</strong> seeing waterfalls and wildlife. To help protect <strong>this</strong> celestial resource for future generations, a small team of park rangers and professional <strong>as</strong>tronomers are working together to me<strong>as</strong>ure and monitor the night sky of the parks, looking to quantify its darkness and the major sources of light pollution from inside and outside the park (see sidebar, page 32). The National Park Service Night Sky Team not only travels the country monitoring light pollution, it also helps coordinate <strong>as</strong>tronomy volunteers for those parks looking to put on evening <strong>as</strong>tronomy programs. These programs take the form of everything from hikes under a full Moon to telescope tours around the time of new Moon, all of which are among the most popular evening programs that parks off er. In smaller parks, these night-sky programs may stem from the <strong>as</strong>tronomy p<strong>as</strong>sion of a single ranger or volunteer, while at larger parks, local <strong>as</strong>tronomy clubs work with rangers to regularly operate multiple telescopes for the public’s enjoyment. In Yosemite National Park, California <strong>as</strong>tronomy clubs take turns setting up telescopes every summer weekend at Glacier Point, a spectacular vista that overlooks Half The Milky Way and Scorpius rise above Zion Canyon, the centerpiece of Zion National Park in southern Utah. PHOTO BY WALLY PACHOLKA in
Renowned for their terrestrial beauty, U.S. national parks are among the best places to revel in the splendor of the night sky. National Parks ZION NATIONAL PARK SkyandTelescope.com May 2012 27
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