By Mike Lewinski.
Meteors, drums and darkness will be in abundance for the annual Dark Sky Festival. Crestone is celebrating its 4th Annual Dark Sky Festival, Aug. 10, 7 p.m. at the Crestone Charter School. This year’s celebration is timed with the Perseid meteor shower which is ongoing through the week before and after the main event. There is no charge for attendance. Bring your sense of wonder, curiosity and an open mind.
The Town of Crestone was formally designated as a Dark Sky Community by the International Dark Sky Association on May 14, 2021. The award recognizes the community’s work to enact lighting policies and provide ongoing dark sky education to residents and visitors.
Local astrophotographer Scott Stevens will lead the celebration with a report about the state of light pollution in Crestone as documented with his Sky Quality Meter (SQM). Scott will also provide telescopes for a live astronomy experience at the end of the evening.
Another local astrophotographer, Mike Lewinski, will present a video show of night sky time-lapses featuring meteors, northern lights, sprite lightning and more.
The celebration also features the Shumei Taiko Drums and live music with Steve and Trevor Storm.
Dark sky conservation is especially important for the health of wildlife, particularly migrating birds who pass through the area twice a year and can be disoriented by artificial lights. We humans are diurnal by nature and also need darkness at night for our physical and mental well-being.
Dark Sky event at Sand Dunes
The Great Sand Dunes is celebrating the dark sky with presenter “Kozmic Kyle.” The presentation is Aug. 3 at 8:45 p.m. at the Great Sand Dunes National Park.
Until modern times, every culture has looked to the skies to find their direction, set their calendar, record their stories, and contemplate their place in this amazing cosmos.
Rather than retelling the stories from the ancient Greek perspective, we will create new connections with the stars based on your experiences. Learn to use a monthly star map to find your stories in the real night sky. The program is interactive and for ages 7-adult. Bring a red light and a pencil or pen for drawing on your skymap.
Kozmic Kyle has been a planetarium educator for 25 years and helped set up planetarium education programs in the UK, Poland, Ghana, Kenya, and in the US. He is especially interested in helping empower Indigenous cultures around the world to use modern planetarium tools to record, preserve and teach their own cultural knowledge.