🌅 The Largest Dark Sky Sanctuary in the World

SOURCE

DarkSky International

WHAT TO KNOW

• A remote 2.5 million acre swath of land in southeastern Oregon—a region known as the “Oregon Outback”— has been named the largest Dark Sky Sanctuary in the world, preserving an area of rugged desert landscape that offers visitors an undisturbed view of a vast number of stars, planets, and other celestial bodies. The designation comes via DarkSky International, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting the nighttime environment and preserving dark skies through environmentally responsible nighttime lighting.

WHY IT MATTERS

• The Oregon Outback International Dark Sky Sanctuary is already the largest of the nonprofit’s 23 sanctuaries and includes future plans to expand it to cover a massive 11.4 million acres of the Oregon Outback. Along with the 23 sanctuaries (which are located on five continents), DarkSky International has also designated more than 200 Dark Sky Places, representing 22 countries across 6 continents and protecting more than 160,000 square kilometers of night skies.

CONNECT THE DOTS

• DarkSky’s goal is to preserve the night skies and combat light pollution, which is on the rise globally in both developed and developing nations. The harms of light pollution aren’t limited to stargazing: it also disrupts ecosystems, wastes energy, and can have adverse health impacts on humans by disrupting an individual’s circadian rhythm.