opinion

In Our View: Gaze into the night sky

The summer solstice will occur on June 21. This is the time when the sun reaches its northernmost declination on the celestial equator. This is also considered the beginning of summer in the northern hemisphere and the time when stargazing and viewing the night sky, stars and solar system are at its zenith.

It is estimated by the Salt Lake City Astronomical Society that 60 percent of the people in the United States have never seen the Milky Way. They don’t even have an idea it exists because they can’t see it from where they live.

Luckily, within a 150-mile radius, we are proud to boast that Southern Utah is the best place to explore the night sky. Here’s why.

With congratulatory applause statewide, in April, Utah’s Capitol Reef National Park (CRNP) was officially recognized as a Gold-tier International Dark Sky Park.

Because of the darkness of the night sky and the CRNP’s commitment to reducing light pollution and educating the public about the night skies, the park has become the seventh unit of the National Park Service (NPS) to achieve this prestigious designation as an International Dark Sky Park by the International Dark-Sky Association, signifying it as one of the highest quality night skies in America.

Capitol Reef National Park sprawls over 242,000 acres of federal land. It is named for a visually spectacular region of the Waterpocket Fold, a geological feature that made the area virtually impassable to early Anglo-American settlers. Its domes and cliffs of white Navajo Sandstone define the park’s landscapes.

Despite serving over 830,000 visitors in 2014, CRNP has largely resisted infrastructure development and instead offers visitors a rustic experience. As a consequence there is very little artificial lighting in the park, so visitors experience a night that is remarkably close to what it would have been in the pioneer era.

Since 2010, Capitol Reef has partnered with the National Park Service Night Sky Team to host specialized astronomy volunteers called Astro VIPs (Volunteers in Parks) who organize nighttime public programs at the park. In addition to programs for adults, the park offers a Junior Night Sky Ranger program to engage children in learning more about the night sky.

Another of Utah’s premier stargazing destinations is Bryce Canyon National Park. Far from the light pollution of civilization, Bryce Canyon is one of the last grand sanctuaries of natural darkness.

Its protected lands are far from light pollution, making about 7,500 stars visible on a moonless night. The Milky Way arches from horizon-to-horizon, and Venus and Jupiter, the night sky’s brightest objects after the moon according to BCNP’s website, are said to be remarkably bright enough to cast shadows on moonless June nights.

We encourage our readers to attend Bryce Canyon’s 15th Annual Astronomy Festival, June 17-21. The festival is collaboration between Bryce Canyon’s Astronomy Rangers and the Salt Lake Astronomical Society, and offers world-class stargazing opportunities for the public. The event includes huge telescopes, model rocket building and launching, constellation tours, workshops and speakers.

According to the International Dark-Sky Association, “once a source of wonder — and one half of the entire planet’s natural environment — the star-filled nights of just a few years ago are vanishing in a yellow haze. Human-produced light pollution not only mars our view of the stars; poor lighting threatens astronomy, disrupts ecosystems, affects human circadian rhythms, and wastes energy to the tune of $2.2 billion per year in the U.S. alone.”

Whether you believe the International Dark-Sky Association’s assessments of human-produced light pollution to be true or false, we think you will not want to be left in the dark.

So, we encourage our readers during this summer season to see and experience for yourself, and perhaps as a family, what it feels like to be awed by the Milky Way, mesmerized by the moon, excited by viewing the planets, and humbled by the unbelievable number of stars which sit above us almost every night of the year.