NEWS RELEASES
Grand Canyon Throws A Star Party To Celebrate Status As Dark Sky Park
Editor's Note: This news item was retrieved and first published through Travel + Leisure's website.
Travel and Leisure reports that the Grand Canyon National Park will be named an International Dark Sky Park on June 22, 2019 at the opening ceremonies of the park’s annual Star Party which runs from June 22–29. This year, the event celebrates both the 100th anniversary of the park and the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. Numerous telescopes for stargazing will be set up on both the North and South Rims of the canyon, with views of planets Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury, and Mars, as well as double stars, star clusters, nebulae and distant galaxies - and the Moon - expected. Slide shows, films and other events are planned as well.
One of 70 International Dark Sky Parks around the world, the Grand Canyon has had “provisional” status since 2016, when the National Park Service (NPS) and the Grand Canyon Association began to retrofit two-thirds of the park’s some 5,000 lights to night sky-friendly lighting fixtures, primarily in the severely light-polluted Grand Canyon Village on the South Rim, around Bright Angel Lodge and the El Tovar Hotel which looks down into the canyon. The area, at 6,800 feet above sea-level, is a prime location for seeing the stars, and the new shielded lighting fixtures will make stargazing and astrophotography much better. For the darkest skies, the NPS suggests you head to more remote sites, such as Desert View or Lipan Point.
For additional information on the Grand Canyon Star Party, visit the NPS website. For more on Dark Sky parks, visit the website of the International Dark Sky Association.