Let’s take a moment to appreciate the dark sky, something we might just take for granted here in Maine.
Last year, the Maine Legislature passed a bill to establish a state observance called Dark Sky Week. Here’s the language in the bill: “The 2nd full week in May and the 2nd full week in September of each year is designated as Dark Sky Week to celebrate the dark skies of the State and to bring attention to the effects of artificial light on spring bird migration and the importance of curbing artificial light pollution. The Governor shall issue annually a proclamation inviting and urging citizens and schools to observe each week with appropriate activities and study.”
In honor of Maine’s first official Dark Sky Week, we’re celebrating with an event called Dark Skies over Fields Pond, taking place Friday, May 8, at 7 pm, at our Fields Pond Audubon Center in Holden. The evening will begin with a conversation led by Maine Audubon’s advocacy team, who will talk about our work helping to protect night skies and our wildlife community, and why responsible outdoor lighting matters for wildlife, human health, and the night sky.
We’ll then turn our attention skyward with members of the Penobscot Valley Stargazers, who will guide us through the wonders of the night sky and help us explore constellations, planets, and other celestial sights.
This special event is an opportunity to celebrate advocacy in action, deepen our connection to the natural world after dark, and experience the beauty of Maine’s night skies together. We hope you’ll join us if you can.
For more reflection on the value of darkness, we’ll leave you with a book review from the Winter 2025-26 issue of Habitat Magazine, written by Eric Topper, Maine Audubon Director of Education. In this issue, where we featured staff picks for winter reading, Eric reviewed The Wild Dark: Finding the Night Sky in the Age of Light by Craig Childs (Torrey House Press, Publication: May 2025).
“The Wild Dark, by southwestern U.S. naturalist and self-described ‘anecdotal science writer’ Craig Childs, details an adventure he and a friend take to document their experiences moving through the Bortle scale, a rating system for categorizing the quality of night sky. They choose bicycles, fast enough to cover the roughly 150 miles they need, while slow enough for their bodies, minds, and spirits to feel the changes they will encounter. They start at the famous Sphere in Las Vegas and ride north for eight nights, camping in diminishing ambient light measured with sophisticated equipment and naked-eye observation of constellations and the Milky Way. Each night’s campsite is a different Bortle rating, ending in a coveted and internationally-threatened Bortle 1 rating, their target somewhere near the famous Area 51 in the Nevada desert.
“Childs is a fantastic storyteller who skillfully weaves his own experiences with deep research in science, history, and culture. While he pulls no punches about artificial light’s effects on the animal world and our own human nature, there are two other dominant themes he illuminates masterfully. One, that the threat is not the expansion of light, but rather the loss and absence of dark—the stars, what we have come to know from them and all that remains unknown when we can seemingly see everything. Two, as scientists from various disciplines share in interviews with Childs, that restoring dark skies is absolutely achievable in an age of challenges which can seem immeasurable and intractable. There is hope and promise to be gained from looking closely at problems we might solve with the flick of a switch.”
