Star Talks: Dark Skies Over Arizona

There’s nothing like standing under a dark, star-spangled night sky to quiet the mind and reduce stress, share an experience of awe with family and friends, and to inspire creative thoughts. Yet such dark skies are a disappearing resource, with only 20% of the world living in a place where the center of our Milky Way Galaxy is visible. Arizona knows a thing or two about this problem and has played a leading role in reducing artificial light pollution. This program will look at the benefits of dark skies, how Arizona has helped lead the charge to protect them, and how we all can do our part in reducing artificial light pollution.

Kevin Schindler is the historian at Lowell Observatory, where he has worked for 28 years as an active member of the Flagstaff history and science communities. Schindler has given more than 1,000 presentations and written more than 600 magazine and newspaper articles on subjects ranging from local history and astronomy to baseball and the Lincoln Memorial, and contributes a bi-weekly astronomy column, “View from Mars Hill”, for the Arizona Daily Sun newspaper. Schindler has written nine books, including Historic Tales of Flagstaff (written with Mike Kitt). Fun fact: Kevin has both a fossil crab and asteroid named after him.

Star Talks are held in partnership with ​Prescott Astronomy Club and presented with funding from Friends of the Prescott Public Library.