North of West Michigan

[dr_phil_physics]

It's no secret that West Michigan's weather sucks for night sky observing. Daytime for that matter, too. I've missed nearly all solar and lunar eclipses, meteor showers, conjunctions, ISS flyovers -- you name it.

So it with some amusement that I read about this International Dark Sky Park far north of us near Petosky MI.

The state's first International Dark Sky Park has been created. It's now one of only six in the U.S. and 10 in the world. Think about that. In lots of (too many?) places on Earth, you don't see the full night sky of stars and galaxies. You see bits and pieces that aren't drowned out by light pollution from city streetlights and buildings (many buildings that don't need to be lit up from top to bottom during the night).

Michigan's new Dark Sky Park is a 600-acre stretch of old-growth timber located north of Petoskey, in Emmet County, along Lake Michigan and west of Mackinaw City.

The county-owned property, called the Headlands, was recently designated as a Dark Sky Park by the Arizona-based International Dark-Sky Association after experts measured the amount of light in the area, and found that it offered a clear, unaltered view of the night sky, as explained by MyNorth.com.

This is very cool. And having lived in the U.P, not surprised that northern Michigan has some possibilities, in terms of sky and ability to get there in a good drive from many major cities from Chicago to Detroit to Toledo.

We'll have to see about this sometime.

Dr. Phil

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