On June 24th, the Michigan Senate passed a resolution recognizing July 2021 as Dark Sky Awareness Month.
It’s meant to show support for the state’s dark sky parks, which aim to minimize potentially harmful light pollution for premium stargazing and environmental health.
“The American Medical Association has released quantitative data that relates a wide variety of medical maladies to overexposure to light pollution,” Robert Parrish, vice president of the Cass County parks and recreation board, said.
Michigan is home to two international dark sky parks, one of which is Dr. T.K. Lawless Park in Cass County, about 7 miles east of Cassopolis.
Parrish said the parks have helped fuel an “astrotourism” boom in the state.
“Since one of Michigan’s main industries is tourism, this just adds another niche to that industry,” Parrish said.
The Dr. Lawless dark sky park usually opens once a month, but Parrish said – weather permitting – it will be open every Friday and Saturday night throughout July.
“I’ve always said that the beauty of Mother Nature does not have to end when the sun goes down,” Parrish said. “If people would like to come out, they’re more than welcome to look through my telescope and I’ll show them a wide variety of celestial wonders.”
The Cass County Board of Commissioners passed its own resolution last month recognizing July as Dark Sky Awareness Month in the county.
Parrish said the best thing homeowners can do if they want to reduce light pollution is install fully-shielded LED lighting.
“That is lighting that focuses the light down on the ground, where it’s intended to be in the first place,” he said. “It doesn’t allow the light to come out horizontally toward your eyes, which causes glare, and keeps it from going vertically up into the sky.”
He said lighting with a color temperature of 3,000 Kelvin or less will have the least impact on nocturnal wildlife and migrating birds.
Contact Gemma atgdicarlo@wvpe.orgor follow her on Twitter at@gemma_dicarlo.
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