Howdy, I’m Bob Grossman, President of the Western Slope Dark Sky Coalition. A Dark Sky component will be included in Western Slope Skies airings in 2025 to help us understand the importance and beauty of the starry skies above us in this area. Excessive exterior lighting, which is growing rapidly worldwide, has wide implications far beyond its threat to astronomy.
For those of us living away from our larger cities and towns, the West Slope area from Grand Junction south to Cortez is one of the darkest places on Earth where people live. We know that by experience but that darkness has been measured by satellites.
In 2015, a group of Norwood and Ridgway citizens contacted the International Dark Sky Association, now called Dark Sky International, to enquire about how the town of Norwood could become a Dark Sky Community. In 2019 Norwood was designated the first Dark Sky Community on the Western Slope and the second in the State. Since then, Dark Sky Communities and Parks have sprung up on the West Slope like mushrooms after a spring rain. There are now 4 Communities and 6 Parks designated with 2 applications in progress. There is even an application for all of San Miguel County to become a Dark Sky Reserve, something that has never been attempted. The area is currently the most active in the state.
My friend and Dark Sky partner, Deb Stueber from Nucla, says, “The night sky isn’t dark, it’s full of stars!”. I’ve been shadowed by starlight. Have you? So, what does Dark Sky mean and why should you be interested in maintaining that starry sky?
A night without excessive exterior lighting, known as Artificial Light At Night (ALAN), is what we call a Dark Sky and it is a lot more than “full of stars”. The implications of excessive exterior lighting are far-reaching, because there is a fundamental periodicity active in most of Life on Earth. It is the reaction to the day/night cycle of light called the circadian rhythm. It is not the same in all Life but it affects the chemistry of Life in many ways as various species evolved including homo sapiens; that’s us. So, when that rhythm is disturbed by exposure to light when it should be dark (or vice versa), it has negative consequences.
More about those consequences and how the Coalition is helping to reduce ALAN in later broadcasts.
Music written and produced by Kenny Mihelich. Western Slope Skies is produced by the Colorado Mesa University Astronomy Club, the Western Slope Dark Sky Coalition, and KVNF Community Radio. This feature was written and voiced by Bob Grossman.
