WOODS & WATERS

Maine’s night skies are a

TREASURE

ENJOYING MAINE’S UNPOLLUTED NIGHT SKY

STORY & PHOTO BY BOB DUCHESNE

MAINE IS A PLACE of many natural wonders, sometimes too easily taken for granted. Take stars, for instance. Maine’s dark sky is unequaled anywhere in the eastern United States. Much of northern Maine is virtually unaffected by light pollution. The nearest state that matches northern Maine’s starlit nights is Montana. Even the glow of Maine’s cities is modest compared to the east coast megalopolis to the south. Light pollution is measurable. A multitude of dark-sky maps populate the internet, serving the amateur astronomers and astrophotographers who use them. As the planet gradually becomes a brighter place, there are fewer spots far from the city lights that can make a person look up and say “Wow.” In Maine, on a perfect moonless night, the Milky Way is bright enough to cast a shadow. For most of human existence, people have wondered at the stars. AS THE PLANET Legacies from ancient cultures remain. Think Stonehenge and Mayan ruins. Shepherds created entire mythologies around the stars, giving GRADUALLY BECOMES A names to constellations that we still use today. Mariners learned to navigate by the stars. The Phoenicians often get credit for developing BRIGHTER PLACE, THERE the first celestial orientation system 4000 years ago, but other ancient civilizations were catching on, too. ARE FEWER SPOTS FAR Alas, many Americans today view starry skies only in movies and

FROM THE CITY LIGHTS magazines. Or when they visit Maine.

THAT CAN MAKE A It took a while to lose a sense of the heavens, and another while to recognize the loss. Today, dark skies are a treasure to be recognized, PERSON LOOK UP AND conserved and celebrated. The International Dark Sky Association has designated two sites in SAY “WOW.” Maine as globally significant: the Appalachian Mountain Club’s Maine

Woods Initiative and Katahdin Woods & Waters National Monument. On the Bortle scale — a nine-level scale that measures night sky brightness — KWW rates a two.

Only places like Antarctica are darker.

Rated a three, Acadia National Park is not far behind. The National Park Service takes great pains to protect the night sky, with the help of its surrounding communities. An ordinance in Bar Harbor requires all new construction to adopt night sky friendly design. Across Frenchman’s Bay at Schoodic Point, protecting the dark sky was paramount when the old Navy base in Winter Harbor was redeveloped as the Schoodic Education and Research Center.

Success breeds success. This year marked Acadia’s 12th Annual Night Sky Festival. Katahdin Woods & Waters enjoyed its 8th Annual Stars Over Katahdin just one week later.

If Maine’s dark sky was once a secret, it isn’t anymore. Stargazers from all over watch the calendar, waiting for a new moon. When the moon is full, the heavens are obscured by its brilliance. Two weeks later, when the moon has waned to nothing, the sky is darkest, and the stars are at their brightest. On such nights, it’s common to find visitors from all across the eastern states at places like KWW and Schoodic Point, well into the wee hours. It’s easy to tell the enthusiasts apart from the casual stargazers in the darkness. They use red flashlights and headlamps, so as not to spoil their night vision.

Maine is dark enough that anyone can walk into the backyard, and see wonders not perceptible to people elsewhere. All of the northern constellations are visible to the naked eye, as are star clusters like the Pleiades. Jupiter is one of the brightest bodies in the heavens, and its four largest moons are visible using even the worst hand-me-down binoculars.

For casual stargazing, binoculars are often better than telescopes. They’re easy enough to hold in the hand, and the wider field of view makes finding objects easier. Andromeda is the nearest galaxy to our own. With any pair of binoculars, it should appear as a smudge just to the right of Cassiopeia. Cassiopeia is the prominent constellation that looks like a sideways W high in the night sky, visible year-round.

Orion is the K-shaped constellation that becomes conspicuous this time of year, dominating the winter sky. Ancient cultures attributed their own myths to the constellation, but it was the Greeks who imagined that it looked like a mighty hunter in the heavens, with a sword hanging from a belt of three stars. One of the stars in the sword is actually the Orion Nebula — a giant dust cloud visible to the naked eye, and blurry through binoculars.

Winter days are short, and the nights are long. You know you’re in Maine when you can have a wonderful star-gazing experience before dinner.

BOB DUCHESNE is a local radio personality, Maine guide, and columnist. He lives on Pushaw Lake with his wife, Sandi.