How often do you stare up at the night sky in wonder, just because you can?
While there are certainly ample opportunities for stargazing around Vancouver (and even some prime low-light spots right here in the city), it wasn’t until I dipped below the Canada-U.S. border on a trip to Arizona that I learned an important truth: light pollution is slowly erasing the night sky and all of the stories that come with it.
Chances are, you’ve heard about stargazing from a hobbyist’s perspective. Maybe your neighbour has a really cool telescope they break out from time to time, or maybe you grew up with an astronomy enthusiast in your family. Maybe you’ve raced to Spanish Banks or Locarno to catch a glimpse of the northern lights, or have fallen asleep under the Milky Way while camping. But what if you didn’t have to hop in a car and drive for hours before being able to see the night sky?
What if you could literally step out onto your balcony or backyard and see a thousand stars twinkling above you?
For residents of Flagstaff, A.Z., this is reality. One they’ve worked hard to achieve through years of trial and error, according to cultural astronomer Dr. Danielle Adams.
Bringing back the stars
“Flagstaff has a really special position in being not only the world’s first Dark Sky City, but the largest,” Dr. Adams explains in an interview with Curiocity. “We created the world’s first ordinance preserving the night sky back in 1958, so we have a long history of protecting the sky.”
The secret to Flagstaff’s success is threefold: Amber spectrum light over blue light, shielded light fixtures, and reducing light output as a community. All are key ingredients to developing what Dr. Adams calls a “dark sky ethos.”
The irony of stargazing is that it can make you feel so small, so singular in a wide, infinitely large, relatively unknown universe, and yet it’s the very fabric that connects us all.
The very atoms in your body were once forged inside ancient stars. So, it’s only natural that societies across the globe, over the course of human history, would ponder their meanings and interpret them differently.
Before humans ever entered the picture, the earth and the sky were interconnected. Every single living thing on the planet depended on darkness to rest, and the illumination of the stars, planets, and moon to inform their life-sustaining patterns. The same is just as true today, though modern cities threaten the natural body rhythms of all living things, according to Dr. Adams.
Baby sea turtles search for the brightest horizon to find the ocean for the first time. Lions and bats alike need the dark to hunt effectively. Nocturnal birds rely on star visibility to migrate across continents. Life itself hangs in the balance when the night sky becomes obscured by artificial light.
“If you live in a large city, you might never actually experience darkness,” Dr. Adams shares. “If your body cannot regularly produce enough melatonin, you become at much greater risk for cancer, diabetes, and a whole bunch of other illnesses.”
The good news, however, is that light pollution is one of the easiest parts of the global climate crisis to mitigate, and by far the fastest. Flagstaff is proof of that.
“As soon as a city’s lighting is less impactful, people can see the stars, and the benefits are instantaneous,” says Dr. Adams. “It literally fixes the speed of light. Even in a city as large as Vancouver or Phoenix, if you were to bring back the stars and the Milky Way, the value of the night sky would form pretty quickly.”
While Vancouver’s most recent Outdoor Lighting Strategy in 2019 explores the possibility of a Dark Sky Designation (an Urban Star Park designation at Stanley Park), it doesn’t look like the City is ready to dim the lights more broadly anytime soon.
To become an internationally-designated Dark Sky Community, a city must commit to using certified outdoor lighting, promote dark sky education, and have citizen support of dark skies.
The 2019 strategy is more about promoting responsible outdoor lighting and reducing “nuisance lighting” than moving forward any foreseeable dark sky legislation. It does, however, have a couple of Flagstaff’s guidelines under “design tips,” including using fully cut-off fixtures (to reduce wasted light) and warmer colours, which limit atmospheric scattering.
Today, multiple communities across Arizona have earned Dark Sky status, including Flagstaff, Sedona, Camp Verde, Oak Creek, Cottonwood, Fountain Hills, Bisbee, and Tubac. In addition to Flagstaff, I was able to visit Sedona and Fountain Hills, and each community had so much to offer visitors.
For one, Sedona (and the surrounding region) is home to some of the most beautiful and varied natural landscapes I’ve ever seen. Truly, it’s not just endless stretches of cacti or dry, red rock, like my PNW-programmed brain used to tell me. There were lush trees, winding green hills, and yes, intense bouts of rain and thunder, too!
If you’re ever in the area, you have to take in the iconic red rock formations from the Airport Mesa Scenic Overlook. Whether you grab a bite from Mesa Grill or embark on an off-road jeep tour is totally up to you, but the views are absolutely breathtaking.
Another must-visit spot in the area (a 1.5-hour drive from Sedona, or a 3.5-hour drive from Phoenix) is Meteor Crater, the world’s best-preserved meteorite impact site. Somehow, every viewing platform here gives you a more and more jaw-dropping view!
The massive iron-nickel meteorite slammed into Earth over 50,000 years ago, weighing several hundred thousand tons. It impacted a huge area outside of Flagstaff, with a force 150 times greater than the atomic bomb. The resulting bowl-shaped cavity measures almost a mile wide and 550 feet deep.
It’s considered one of Arizona’s top attractions, and for US$29 per adult, you can walk right along its edge.
World-famous telescopes
If looking through telescopes is one of your main priorities while visiting (as it was mine), Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff is world-renowned.
It was here that Pluto was first discovered, and where experts found the very first burgeoning evidence of an expanding universe.
Today, it remains on the pulse of cutting-edge astronomical research, using world-class facilities like the Lowell Discovery Telescope to educate visitors from across the globe.
Under clear skies, the stars and Milky Way (and even some planets!) are visible from the Giovale Open Deck Observatory, which features one of the finest collections of public telescopes in the world.
I had never even looked through a telescope before this trip, much less viewed the cosmos through six advanced machines.
Each one is available for public use during the observatory’s stargazing sessions and has its own distinct purpose.
One telescope is wide enough to view “sweeping star fields,” while another Victorian-style refractor offers a close-up view of the moon and planets.
One even shows faraway sky objects in real time in live colour video, revealing what the human eye alone can’t pick up.
Visitors to the Lowell Observatory pay US$35 for general admission, which gets you access to over 150 exhibits, historic buildings, Lowell Universe Theatre shows, and stargazing, when skies are clear enough.
According to Dr. Adams, astronomers only get around four or five nights of observation time per year, leaving the rest of their time for data analysis.
Learning this gave me pause. How is it possible that I looked through the very same instruments that leading astronomers use to refine our understanding of the universe?! To say that it was a humbling, rewarding experience to be there would be a huge understatement.
In one telescope, our group was able to see Saturn in real time, rings and all! Considering it started out cloudy that night, I was absolutely blown away by the level of detail we managed to see.
The cultural significance of stargazing
When it comes to the significance of dark sky viewing, it goes well beyond looking up at the night sky.
In Navajo culture, for example, the stars are very much a part of their intergenerational knowledge systems and traditions.
“The Navajo people’s origins are tied to the stars,” shares Bobby V. Martin, Discover Navajo’s tourism department manager, division of economic development. “Our emergence stories have been part of our tradition for generations, carried through our teachings and ceremonies. We call this stargazing. We have medicine men who teach specifically about the stars, constellations and planets, and how they connect to our beliefs and practices.”
“They have a place in our ceremonies, guide our planting seasons, and serve as a celestial map,” adds Kristal Anderson, a marketing specialist with Discover Navajo. “They are one part of how we observe the sky as a whole.”
According to Dr. Adams, those who live under dark skies are more likely to wonder about the universe. So when the night sky becomes less and less visible, we’re losing out on a lot more than just a celestial show. We’re losing our connection to the Earth, and ultimately, to ourselves.
A 2020 study from the University of Melbourne looks at light pollution as a form of cultural erasure and ecological genocide, urging legislators to centre Indigenous philosophies over Western frameworks to come up with their solution strategies. Dr. Adams iterates that our modern understanding of the stars and constellations is “fragmented at best.”
“It’s really disconnected from time and seasonality, and the ground. You learn about these old Greek constellations that mostly don’t look like what they’re supposed to, and you observe them against this grid of latitude and longitude lines projected into the sky.”
Decolonizing the lens through which we view the night sky is paramount to protecting it for generations to come.
There are 22 federally recognized First Nations in present-day Arizona, including the Navajo Nation, the Hopi Tribe, and the San Juan Pueblo. The Heard Museum in Phoenix is an excellent resource for those looking to deepen their understanding of the region and its complex histories.
Just as in Canada, the U.S. had its own version of the residential school system. Since opening in 2000, this featured exhibition (Away From Home) has become one of the museum’s most prominent, alongside the newer Substance of Stars exhibit, which details multiple First Nation interpretations of the stars.
Museum-goers can check out an immersive video installation in a gallery called the Sky-Dome.
If you’re heading to Phoenix or the surrounding area, the museum is a must-visit.
Where to see the stars near you
We may be separated by borders, but we’re all connected through stars. That said, if you’d rather start your stargazing journey a little closer to home, there are a handful of Dark Sky Preserves you can visit in Canada.
This includes legendary spots like Jasper and Point Pelee National Parks. These incredible destinations comply with low-light standards established and administered by the Royal Astronomical Society.
B.C. does have one designated Dark Sky Park that is completely free of light pollution: McDonald Park in Abbotsford. It’s the second of its kind in Canada, tucked against the Sumas Mountain with incredible east-south and western night sky exposure. I’ve never been myself, but people have praised it for being an idyllic spot for stargazing and viewing meteor showers.
A couple of other B.C. spots known for their stargazing opportunities include:
If you live in B.C., you don’t have to travel far to enjoy the night sky. But if you want to experience some of North America’s most spectacular dark sky country, a trip to one of Arizona’s Dark Sky Communities warrants a spot on your bucket list.
Looking for more recs before planning your trip south of the border? Stay tuned for our favourite destinations and stays.
The author was hosted by the Arizona Office of Tourism and stayed at ADERO Scottsdale, La Posada Hotel, and DoubleTree by Hilton Flagstaff.
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