This star trail photograph was taken atop Schoodic Head at Schoodic Peninsula in May in the course of an hour. The camera is mounted stationary on a tripod, the shutter opened and with the Earth rotating, stars trail on the film. The light pollution in the lower left of the frame is from Machias and the glowing towers are the Cutler Towers. They are approximately 60 kilometers away.—PHOTO COURTESY OF JIM CORMIER OF THE ISLAND ASTRONOMY INSTITUTE

Downeast Maine’s Dark Skies Provide Prime Star-gazing

“People just don’t enjoy the outdoors anymore,” Peter Lord, executive director of Island Astronomy Institute on Mount Desert Island, lamented this summer. “People are afraid.”

For those unafraid of venturing outdoors at night, the Downeast region has some of the darkest skies left in the United States.

“People have been doing that since there were people,” Lord said. “It’s almost too simple and too direct for people to get interested in.”

Lord says the hardest part of his job is getting people to look up, taking the first step.

“It’s about getting out and about, away from the daily grind,” he said. “You don’t need to know a whole lot.”

Lord suggests finding a safe, dark spot away from traffic for star-gazing. He also recommends bringing a flashlight covered with red cellophane. This old star-gazing trick protects night vision.

The constellations Cygnus and Lyra can be seen directly overhead in the summer.—PHOTO COURTESY OF JIM CORMIER OF THE ISLAND ASTRONOMY INSTITUTE

“It takes about 20 minutes for eyes to adjust to the dark … It’s amazing how much more you see when you give your eyes the time, Lord said. “Even the flash of a white flashlight, you’ll lose your dark eyesight.”

For the uninitiated, Acadia National Park offers a ranger-led program on Tuesday nights to help stargazers take the first step into astronomy. “Stars Over Sand Beach” is a late-night, educational program in which stargazers get a ranger-led tour of the night sky. A park ranger teaches history, the mythology behind stars and points out constellations with a laser pointer.

Participants lay out on blankets and listen to myths about how stars were formed, learn some science and relax on the dark beach. The program is free and does not require participants to pre-register.

“Stars are not a necessity, they’re a luxury [now],” Park Ranger Matt Holly, who leads the program. He noted stars were once used like GPS. Mariners used to navigate by the stars and some people simply consulted the sky to find their way home in the dark.

“We’re living in an age where we can’t see the night sky … this is a very unusual time,” Holly said.

The sky is losing clarity. This is caused by light pollution. When high-wattage lighting, such as store signs and floodlights emit light, often the beams go upward toward the sky. This makes stars much more difficult, sometimes impossible, to see.

“On nice, clear nights you can see a white streak through the sky,” Holly said, referring to the constellation.

“On nice, clear nights we see the moon,” New York resident Marisela Richardson, a participant “Stars Over Sand Beach,” chimed in.

The North America Nebula, an emission nebula in the constellation Cygnus, is shaped like the North American Continent.—PHOTO COURTESY OF JIM CORMIER OF THE ISLAND ASTRONOMY INSTITUTE

Holly pointed out the Summer Triangle, the Big and Little Dippers, the North Star and myriad constellations, telling each of their stories involving swans, dragons and queens.

For those who don’t want to travel for their late-night entertainment, Lord suggests buying a planisphere, which costs approximately $10. This circular device is made of two layered pieces of cardboard. By rotating the bottom piece to the time and date the planisphere serves as a map of the night sky. This does require some map-reading skills.

“That’s where people should start,” Lord said. “Once you know how to do that, it’s like riding a bike — you can do it every summer for the rest of your life.”

That is, if the sky remains dark enough to see. On a map that plots light pollution across the United States, Maine is one of the last dark spots. However, on the Bortle Scale, which is what astronomers use to determine sky quality, Acadia National Park is between a three and four on the scale of one to nine. Nine is the worst, one the best.

In conjunction with Acadia National Park, the Island Astronomy Institute is working to help Acadia meet standards to become a dark sky preserve. “There aren’t many parks on the Eastern Seaboard that have a chance at doing this — but we do,” Lord said. “Mount Desert Island is surrounded by water, so nothing is going to happen there and the park is in the middle.”

Because Acadia is close to the ocean, Lord is sure there will be no development with light pollution in the sea’s direction.

“Stars are not a necessity, they’re a luxury [now].” — matt holly, acadia national park ranger

In an effort to keep Downeast skies dark, Lord and the Island Astronomy Institute have been working with area towns to craft light pollution policy. Bar Harbor residents, for instance, will vote in November on whether to adapt a lighting ordinance. The ordinance would require all new lights brighter than a 100-watt bulb to be shielded, making all the light go toward the ground. If the ordinance passes, it will go into effect as of January 2009, but lights that were already installed would have until 2018 to comply. This would affect both businesses and private homes.

For more information about Acadia’s “Stars Over Sand Beach” program, visit nps.gov/acad/planyourvisit/events.htm.

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