Meet the Stars!

The First International Dark–Sky City Shares its Star-filled Skies with the World

When the great earth, abandoning day, rolls up the deeps of the heavens and the universe, a new door opens for the human spirit, and there are few so clownish that some awareness of the mystery of being does not touch them as they gaze. For a moment of night we have a glimpse of ourselves and of our world islanded in its stream of stars – pilgrims of mortality, voyaging between horizons across eternal seas of space and time.

– Henry Beston, The Outermost House

Flagstaff hosts the annual Flagstaff Star Party – Meet the Stars! to bring dark sky experiences to Flagstaff residents and visitors from across the Southwest and around the world. The Flagstaff Star Party’s goal is to share Flagstaff’s world–renowned dark skies with those who may not have the opportunity to view starry night skies because of urban sky glow, yet who have a curiosity and desire to see the beauty of a starry sky for themselves, and wish to experience with their families the wonder such views can inspire.

The Star Party features naked-eye and hosted telescopic observing, with popular-level astronomy talks and guided tours of Flagstaff’s wonderful sunsets and night skies, all held at Buffalo Park (map). Up to 30 telescopes hosted by amateur and professional astronomers from the Flagstaff area will be available for visitors to view the many wonders of the night sky – to capture genuine ancient starlight with their own eyes!

The event is hosted by the Flagstaff Dark Skies Coalition, the Coconino Astronomical Society, the Northern Arizona University Physics and Astronomy Department, Flagstaff Unified School District, U.S.G.S. Astrogeology Science Center, Lowell Observatory, and the U.S. Naval Observatory.