Grand Canyon National Park, AZ has just been certified as an International Dark Sky Park, which means it’s got a “distinguished quality of starry nights,” according to the International Dark-Sky Association. The park joins just over a hundred other locations as the best places in the world to watch the night sky.
The certification isn’t easy to achieve and the whole process has taken nearly three years, during which time the park has been converting most of its 5,000 light fixtures to “dark-sky compliant.” In the next few years, the park said, 90% of Grand Canyon lights will become night-sky friendly. Dark sky friendly lights are fixtures that minimize glares and reduce light trespass and sky glow.
One of the association’s greater goals is combating light pollution and protecting the night sky. It has been working to identify the “negative impacts of artificial light at night on human health, wildlife, and climate change.”
