August 20, 2007
Star crossed | Acadia National Park teams up with night sky enthusiasts to protect the park's oldest asset — its starry skies
By Sara Donnelly
Midnight atop Cadillac Mountain, Acadia National Park's 1,530-foot peak, used to be akin to free theatre for astronomy buffs. Visitors to a nighttime Cadillac could get a glimpse of what the sky has looked like from this summit for the past thousands of years ˆ pools of stars hanging over a shadowy expanse of roughly 47,000 acres of protected woods, trails and ponds below, the carriage and auto roads normally visible during the day dimmed to negligible strands.
At least, that's the way it used to be.
Now, the eyes of mountaintop stargazers are as likely to be drawn to glowing streetlights in Bar Harbor as they are to the Milky Way. Commercial and municipal development in area towns like Bar Harbor, and even within the park itself, threaten Acadia National Park's starry skies.
"This is a pocket," says Peter Lord, an amateur astronomer and executive director of the nonprofit Island Astronomy Institute in Tremont, referring to the night skies above the park. "There are a lot of people who move up here who say, 'Now we have our stars again.'"
But Lord believes, even though the sky here is more pristine than most coastal spots in the United States, the stars still aren't what they used to be. Strip-mall development in Ellsworth, uncovered street lighting on roads all over the island and even a Wal-Mart as far away as Bangor bleed light into the cosmos, cutting down the number of stars visible to the naked eye by the thousands.
Lord, who runs a guest cottage and observatory that banks on what he describes as great night viewing, wants to contain that light pollution. So last summer he approached Acadia National Park and the Bar Harbor nonprofit Friends of Acadia to discuss how the three entities could collaborate to modify local lighting to bring out the natural charisma of the nighttime sky. In January, the Night Sky Initiative officially formed to, Lord says, "preserve, promote and protect" Acadia's dark sky.
For the time being, few in the five towns the initiative plans to target ˆ Bar Harbor, Mt. Desert, Southwest Harbor, Tremont and Trenton ˆ know much about the Night Sky Initiative. Lord's first official presentation on the project occurred at a meeting on August 13 of the Bar Harbor Conservation Commission, while this issue went to press. But stars already appear to be important to many Bar Harbor residents ˆ during public hearings on the comprehensive plan review citizens will vote on this November, Bar Harbor Planning Director Anne Krieg says residents of every neighborhood she went to mentioned protecting the area's dark skies. In response, the town added a strategy to protect the dark sky to the new comp plan, which, if passed, requires the town to prepare a "dark sky management plan" and draft a lighting ordinance that would affect new construction. This fall, the planning department's intern will work with Lord to measure light pollution along the Route 3 Scenic Byway from Trenton to Mt. Desert.
Dark thoughts
The initiative's first task is to target the causes and extent of light pollution in and around the park. The National Park Service recently awarded Acadia a $20,000 matching grant to research light pollution. Friends of Acadia and the Island Astronomy Institute will match that funding with $15,000 and $5,000, respectively. Last year, a light pollution expert for the national park service came to Acadia to measure just how dark the sky is, and in April, Lord and two students from the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor released the results of a study on lights on Mt. Desert Island. The students, each armed with a handheld "sky quality meter," wandered the island for two nights measuring how much light from the ground goes up. They found that much of the island, apart from the sparsely settled fringe, contaminates night sky viewing to some degree, but that Bar Harbor, the largest town on the island, is the worst offender, sending up enough light every night to limit viewing to around 1,500 stars in the sky, compared to the some 13,000 you might see without any obstruction.
Crafting local policy to improve your chances of seeing the Big Dipper is a long process. Lord, whose institute is also independently pursuing policy to protect area dark skies under its "Starlit Communities" effort, guesses it will take the Night Sky Initiative several years to achieve the coup de gras for night sky parks ˆ the International Dark Sky Association's new Dark Sky Park certification.
In April, Natural Bridges Park in Utah became the world's first, and to date only, "International Dark Sky Park." The designation was based on several requirements, including that all lights in the park be "fully-shielded" by what looks like an overturned bowl covering the top hemisphere of the bulb. The bowl keeps light aimed down, where people need it, rather than allowing it to disperse into the sky. Natural Bridges promotes the dark sky distinction on its website, but an assistant ranger at the park says most visitors aren't aware of the star perk until they arrive.
John Kelly, Acadia's park planner, wants Acadia to eventually achieve that dark-sky distinction and, he believes, it could bring more tourists to the area. "If you look at a map of the east coast, Maine is it. [Acadia is] the dark sky natural park in the east," says Kelly. "It is a benefit to the community, it is something they could market and take advantage of."
Kelly suspects much of the light pollution affecting the park comes from street and building lights inside Acadia and street lamps in surrounding towns. He and Lord also are planning to contact strip mall developers in Ellsworth to talk to them about installing light shields on parking lot lamps. "There's a Lowe's, a supermarket, a super Wal-Mart going in," Kelly says. "We are, as part of this thing, trying to reach businesses and see if they could look at fully covered light fixtures."
Traveling light
In October 2006, a troupe of star-loving rangers from Natural Bridges called the "Night Sky Team" spent a night on the summit of Cadillac Mountain measuring light pollution. Sitting in his sunlit office at park headquarters months later, Kelly swivels in his chair, clicks his computer mouse and pulls up a multicolored graphic the team produced to document its findings. The study results look like a psychedelic sunset, with bold yellow, red, blue and green colors representing degrees of ground-light intensity in a 360-degree view of night sky from the Cadillac peak. According to this chart, a stargazer on Cadillac Mountain isn't getting all the sky has to offer.
"That is a combination of Trenton, Ellsworth, Bangor," says Kelly, pointing to a reddish bump on the graphic's horizon. Red represents one of the highest levels of light pollution. "That is Portland." Kelly points to a green bump; slightly dimmer, but still an obstruction. "That," Kelly says, pointing to a smaller green bump to the left of the image, "we're not sure, but we think that must be Boston."
Studies like this are just the beginning, Kelly says, of the park's attempt to "improve the [night sky] condition to any degree."
Businesses that might be affected by the Night Sky Initiative's plans are awaiting more information before forming an opinion on a project Lord says would likely involve replacing municipal lights and implementing lighting ordinances similar to the one in operation for over a decade in Bangor. The Bangor ordinance, which the city's code enforcement officer readily admits isn't comprehensive, requires the top half of outside lights be fully covered and that lights not illuminate neighboring parcels. Last month, the city amended the ordinance to restrict the height of light poles to 25 feet. The ordinance does not apply to street lighting or athletic fields.
"I think it's too early to predict; we haven't even sat down with the people involved, Peter Lord specifically," says Chris Fogg, executive director of the Bar Harbor Chamber of Commerce, of the business community's thoughts on the save-the-stars movement.
Micki Sumpter, director of the Ellsworth Area Chamber of Commerce, agreed the Night Sky Initiative is too young to evaluate. "I don't think anyone disagrees that night skies are beneficial to our region, but how to implement that is key," Fogg says. "The devil is in the details."
Fogg would be concerned with mandated changes, like an ordinance, he says, or pressure to make fixture adjustments that don't save as much money as they cost.
The Night Sky Initiative will spend the next several months studying light pollution in and around the park, and speaking with town councilors, regional chambers and citizens about lighting, before promoting specific policy changes. Kelly says he would prefer if lighting changes for businesses were voluntary. Lord, whose obsession with the night sky prompted his move five years ago from Mt. View, Calif., in Silicon Valley to Mt. Desert, says most light pollution in Bar Harbor comes from street lamps and flood lighting, not business signs. So he hopes to spark a grassroots appeal to cap or change municipal lights first.
Lord envisions, eventually, a dark sky preserve stretching the entire corridor from Bar Harbor to Bangor. The designation, he says, could even extend to the entire state of Maine. "The goal is to have the quality of the night sky recognized at the highest level we can get away with," he says.
At least, that's the way it used to be.
Now, the eyes of mountaintop stargazers are as likely to be drawn to glowing streetlights in Bar Harbor as they are to the Milky Way. Commercial and municipal development in area towns like Bar Harbor, and even within the park itself, threaten Acadia National Park's starry skies.
"This is a pocket," says Peter Lord, an amateur astronomer and executive director of the nonprofit Island Astronomy Institute in Tremont, referring to the night skies above the park. "There are a lot of people who move up here who say, 'Now we have our stars again.'"
But Lord believes, even though the sky here is more pristine than most coastal spots in the United States, the stars still aren't what they used to be. Strip-mall development in Ellsworth, uncovered street lighting on roads all over the island and even a Wal-Mart as far away as Bangor bleed light into the cosmos, cutting down the number of stars visible to the naked eye by the thousands.
Lord, who runs a guest cottage and observatory that banks on what he describes as great night viewing, wants to contain that light pollution. So last summer he approached Acadia National Park and the Bar Harbor nonprofit Friends of Acadia to discuss how the three entities could collaborate to modify local lighting to bring out the natural charisma of the nighttime sky. In January, the Night Sky Initiative officially formed to, Lord says, "preserve, promote and protect" Acadia's dark sky.
For the time being, few in the five towns the initiative plans to target ˆ Bar Harbor, Mt. Desert, Southwest Harbor, Tremont and Trenton ˆ know much about the Night Sky Initiative. Lord's first official presentation on the project occurred at a meeting on August 13 of the Bar Harbor Conservation Commission, while this issue went to press. But stars already appear to be important to many Bar Harbor residents ˆ during public hearings on the comprehensive plan review citizens will vote on this November, Bar Harbor Planning Director Anne Krieg says residents of every neighborhood she went to mentioned protecting the area's dark skies. In response, the town added a strategy to protect the dark sky to the new comp plan, which, if passed, requires the town to prepare a "dark sky management plan" and draft a lighting ordinance that would affect new construction. This fall, the planning department's intern will work with Lord to measure light pollution along the Route 3 Scenic Byway from Trenton to Mt. Desert.
Dark thoughts
The initiative's first task is to target the causes and extent of light pollution in and around the park. The National Park Service recently awarded Acadia a $20,000 matching grant to research light pollution. Friends of Acadia and the Island Astronomy Institute will match that funding with $15,000 and $5,000, respectively. Last year, a light pollution expert for the national park service came to Acadia to measure just how dark the sky is, and in April, Lord and two students from the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor released the results of a study on lights on Mt. Desert Island. The students, each armed with a handheld "sky quality meter," wandered the island for two nights measuring how much light from the ground goes up. They found that much of the island, apart from the sparsely settled fringe, contaminates night sky viewing to some degree, but that Bar Harbor, the largest town on the island, is the worst offender, sending up enough light every night to limit viewing to around 1,500 stars in the sky, compared to the some 13,000 you might see without any obstruction.
Crafting local policy to improve your chances of seeing the Big Dipper is a long process. Lord, whose institute is also independently pursuing policy to protect area dark skies under its "Starlit Communities" effort, guesses it will take the Night Sky Initiative several years to achieve the coup de gras for night sky parks ˆ the International Dark Sky Association's new Dark Sky Park certification.
In April, Natural Bridges Park in Utah became the world's first, and to date only, "International Dark Sky Park." The designation was based on several requirements, including that all lights in the park be "fully-shielded" by what looks like an overturned bowl covering the top hemisphere of the bulb. The bowl keeps light aimed down, where people need it, rather than allowing it to disperse into the sky. Natural Bridges promotes the dark sky distinction on its website, but an assistant ranger at the park says most visitors aren't aware of the star perk until they arrive.
John Kelly, Acadia's park planner, wants Acadia to eventually achieve that dark-sky distinction and, he believes, it could bring more tourists to the area. "If you look at a map of the east coast, Maine is it. [Acadia is] the dark sky natural park in the east," says Kelly. "It is a benefit to the community, it is something they could market and take advantage of."
Kelly suspects much of the light pollution affecting the park comes from street and building lights inside Acadia and street lamps in surrounding towns. He and Lord also are planning to contact strip mall developers in Ellsworth to talk to them about installing light shields on parking lot lamps. "There's a Lowe's, a supermarket, a super Wal-Mart going in," Kelly says. "We are, as part of this thing, trying to reach businesses and see if they could look at fully covered light fixtures."
Traveling light
In October 2006, a troupe of star-loving rangers from Natural Bridges called the "Night Sky Team" spent a night on the summit of Cadillac Mountain measuring light pollution. Sitting in his sunlit office at park headquarters months later, Kelly swivels in his chair, clicks his computer mouse and pulls up a multicolored graphic the team produced to document its findings. The study results look like a psychedelic sunset, with bold yellow, red, blue and green colors representing degrees of ground-light intensity in a 360-degree view of night sky from the Cadillac peak. According to this chart, a stargazer on Cadillac Mountain isn't getting all the sky has to offer.
"That is a combination of Trenton, Ellsworth, Bangor," says Kelly, pointing to a reddish bump on the graphic's horizon. Red represents one of the highest levels of light pollution. "That is Portland." Kelly points to a green bump; slightly dimmer, but still an obstruction. "That," Kelly says, pointing to a smaller green bump to the left of the image, "we're not sure, but we think that must be Boston."
Studies like this are just the beginning, Kelly says, of the park's attempt to "improve the [night sky] condition to any degree."
Businesses that might be affected by the Night Sky Initiative's plans are awaiting more information before forming an opinion on a project Lord says would likely involve replacing municipal lights and implementing lighting ordinances similar to the one in operation for over a decade in Bangor. The Bangor ordinance, which the city's code enforcement officer readily admits isn't comprehensive, requires the top half of outside lights be fully covered and that lights not illuminate neighboring parcels. Last month, the city amended the ordinance to restrict the height of light poles to 25 feet. The ordinance does not apply to street lighting or athletic fields.
"I think it's too early to predict; we haven't even sat down with the people involved, Peter Lord specifically," says Chris Fogg, executive director of the Bar Harbor Chamber of Commerce, of the business community's thoughts on the save-the-stars movement.
Micki Sumpter, director of the Ellsworth Area Chamber of Commerce, agreed the Night Sky Initiative is too young to evaluate. "I don't think anyone disagrees that night skies are beneficial to our region, but how to implement that is key," Fogg says. "The devil is in the details."
Fogg would be concerned with mandated changes, like an ordinance, he says, or pressure to make fixture adjustments that don't save as much money as they cost.
The Night Sky Initiative will spend the next several months studying light pollution in and around the park, and speaking with town councilors, regional chambers and citizens about lighting, before promoting specific policy changes. Kelly says he would prefer if lighting changes for businesses were voluntary. Lord, whose obsession with the night sky prompted his move five years ago from Mt. View, Calif., in Silicon Valley to Mt. Desert, says most light pollution in Bar Harbor comes from street lamps and flood lighting, not business signs. So he hopes to spark a grassroots appeal to cap or change municipal lights first.
Lord envisions, eventually, a dark sky preserve stretching the entire corridor from Bar Harbor to Bangor. The designation, he says, could even extend to the entire state of Maine. "The goal is to have the quality of the night sky recognized at the highest level we can get away with," he says.
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