Those who live in urban areas inhabit a radically different night-time reality than those living far from city lights. Gaze up at the night sky from a metropolis like New York City and you’re greeted with a dusty glow punctured by a few bright pin-prick stars. Do the same from a spot only 100 miles away and the Milky…
If you can’t remember the last time you looked up at a night sky unadulterated by artificial light, good news. On Tuesday, a 1,400 square mile area of central Idaho was designated America’s first International Dark Sky Reserve. It’s finally clear where you should go to find those starry nights absent from urban life.
Finding a weather app that’s both consistent and not a horribly-designed mess can be an arduous journey, but the hyperlocal weather app Dark Sky consistently sits on top of the pile as one of the best. For four years, the app has only been available on iOS. Finally, the Dark Sky team is remedying that situation.
It’s our most visible alteration of the planet, easily seen from space: the millions of lights added to our cities due to our fear of the dark. We need them to keep our cities safe. Or do we? A series of studies on crime have revealed that we probably don’t need as many city lights as we think — and we might be better…
If you live in LA, or any major city for that matter, you’ll know there’s something very unusual in the image above. It’s called the Milky Way, and it’s about as exotic as a cougar sighting.
It’s easy to remember how big the universe is when you can just stare up at the night sky and find an uncountable number of stars and see every color of the cosmos staring right back at you. But it’s not like that anymore. Now we’re surrounded by city lights of our own creation and hiding the rest of the universe…
Arizona is one of the places that has made a vocal stand in support of making their skies more friendly to letting the night shine freely. Recognized as a place of exceptional nighttime beauty, Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument is the newest Dark Sky Park.
Everything's bigger in Texas, including their Dark Sky park. Big Bend National Park in the southwest of Texas stretches over 300,000 square kilometers for your stargazing pleasure. The dry air and exceptionally flat landscape will allow you to peek at stars barely above the horizon.
Natural Bridges National Monument is the first national monument in Utah. In 2007, it also became the first recognized Dark Sky Park, earning a gold-star rating for extremely good visibility including air glow, the Milky Way, and faint meteors. Best of all, it's only $3 per week to visit.
This is Dark Sky Week, an international effort to promote appreciation for dark skies and reduction in light pollution. Where are your favourite places to escape the city lights and stargaze?
I live in a city. I can see pinpricks of bright stars, but I miss the spill of the Milky Way. Cities don't need to be this bright, and dark skies don't need to be a distant memory from trips to deserts, mountain tops, and vacations far from home.
The makers of Beyond Protocol, a real-time strategy MMO of interplanetary warfare, just announced that they're pushing their release date to November of this year. Bad news, right? Well, there's a big, thick silver lining. If you pre-order the game, you can immediately jump into the closed beta and play for free from…
