Get Out There!

I am sure you have been told to stop and smell the flowers, to step away from the autopilot we are on in our daily lives, to take a moment to breathe and explore the beauty this planet has to offer. But have you ever been asked to stop and look at the night sky? The nighttime translation prompts the same task from you, to take a second on the way in from your car after a long day at work to glance at the sky, examining its beauty and vastness.

I remember the first time I truly marveled at the night sky. I was on one of the backpacking trips that I would take during my winter breaks from college. On this particular trip I was determined to see wildlife, so I took off to Kruger National Park in South Africa. Luckily, I was able to see almost all of the ‘big five’ mammals that can be seen in Africa, lions, elephants, African buffalos, and rhinos. But what I did not expect to see was the incredibly clear night sky spotted with what looked like millions of stars. Here, in addition to the mammalian ‘big five’, there is also the Celestial Big Five (Southern Pleiades, the Omega Centauri star cluster, the Coalsack Nebula, the Southern Milky Way, and the Eta Carinae nebula). The lack of development, limited light pollution, and Kruger’s location on two million hectares of land made this the perfect place to stargaze.

Since that experience, I began to take note of the night sky back at home and encourage others to do so as well. On Long Island, the Milky Way galaxy can be seen in areas where there is limited development, which is one of the reasons why living on the North Fork is so special. It means that we must be responsible stewards of this land to preserve the beauty of our night sky. We must actively combat light pollution to make sure the beauty of our night sky can be seen. You can take the first step by taking our North Fork Dark Sky Pledge.