Florida Today
October 7, 2018
We all know sea turtles dig the dark at our beaches. Light pollution distorts the natural ambient light pattern and confuses new-born hatchlings that need a dark, starry night sky to orient themselves toward the ocean.
As for the human species, stargazers have been headed to the Central Idaho Dark Sky Reserve, one of the best dark sky destinations in the world. It's an area spanning 1,416 square miles stretching from Sun Valley/Ketchum through the craggy Sawtooth mountain range up to the tiny mountain town of Stanley.
Last year the International Dark-Sky Association (IDSA) announced the Reserve accreditation, marking the first of its kind in the United States. The super-strict designation applies to just a dozen places in the world, including remote regions in New Zealand, Germany, Wales, and Namibia in southern Africa, where the skies are so "exceptionally dark" the light pollution is nearly zero. The isolated locations must have a firm plan in place for long-term conservation.
In the Central Idaho Reserve shooting stars, meteors and comet sightings are the norm. So is the purple cloud of the Milky Way-- that torrent of stars which slashes across a deeply darkened sky in the southwest quadrant each night. Recognized for the quality and depth of the darkness, astro-photography opportunities are as plentiful as anywhere in the country.