Press
Below is an archive of press articles and videos published regarding the efforts of Dark Skies, Inc of the Wet Mountain Valley. If you are looking for information regarding a news item or have press related questions, please send all inquires to press@darkskiescolorado.org.
At the end of last year, Ed Lyons exca - Trib Photo by Jordan Hedberg vated und leveled the new platform. In the spring of this year. Carl Cardinas began build ing the benches and handrail. Throughout the summer, Carl installed the handrail, Brad Hough installed electrical conduit and wiring. and hard labor from Dark Skies members (who were let out under strict supervision!) installed the benches and spread 7.5 tons of dirt and 15 tons of gravel from Seifert
Dark Skies completes the expansion of Smokey Jack, by W.A. Ewing, Wet Mountain Tribune, October, 8, 2020
Dark Skies of the Wet Mountain Valley is pleased to announce the completion of the expansion of the Smokey Jack Observatory (SJO). Due to the large turnout at their Star Parties last year before COVID-19, they knew had to do something to increase their ability to accommodate so many folks wanting to visit and use the observatory. The SJO was suffering from success with well over 1088 people in total attending parties in 2019.
Last year Dark Skies approached the Westcliffe Town Trustees about expanding the area. The plan was to more than double the size of the level graded area to the south of the observatory: to add 15 benches on the hillside east of the observatory: add three benches around the graded area; and provide a handrail along the pathway leading to the observatory. The estimated cost to complete this work was a little over $17,000, With help
Dark Skies recently completed the outside improvements of the Smokey Jack from the Town of Westcliffe, ACE Hardware, Observatory that includes expanded outside seating, handrails, and new private donors, and contributions to Dark power access for presentations. The new seating arrangements will make Skies, these funds were raised. future Star Parties safer and more enjoyable for the many people that love the Dark Skies
Now there is a level area large enough to accommodate six private telescopes with power. But probably most importantly for the entire community, there is now a new amphitheater on the hillside above the SJO looking out over the Valley, able to sit 45 people comfortably. Dark Skies intends to use this to project live images from the telescope at night (no more long lines to look through the telescope). During the day, this seating is open to the public.
Dark Skies thinks all the volunteers and contributors who have made the project such a success. Even in this time of distress and conflict, wonderful valuable endeavors can be accomplished. All of us look forward to share ing our dark skies with starszers in 2021!
Why a Dark Sky Area Should Be Your Next Road Trip Destination, by Ashley Mateo, Men’s Journal, 2020.
It’s hard not to feel small in a place like Westcliffe, CO. With the Sangre de Cristo Mountains to the west and the Wet Mountains to the east, you can spot several 14,000-foot peaks—including Crestone Needle and Crestone Peak—from nearly any point in the Wet Mountain Valley. As stunning as that panorama is during the day, I came to Three Peaks Ranch—a family-owned and- operated private ranch just 15 minutes out of town—not for the mountain views, but for the nighttime sky.
This stargazing road trip offers world-class night sky views: Take a coronavirus-conscious trip to Colorado, home to incredible stargazing sites—and what may become the world’s largest Dark Sky reserve. BY JACQUELINE KEHOE, National Geographic, 2020
AT FEW POINTS in humanity’s past has seeing the Milky Way been a rare experience—until now.
Eighty percent of Americans live under a hazy umbrella of light pollution. Even if we put away the screens long enough to look up, the glare of our existence blocks out the stars. The good news? There’s a growing idea that wilderness extends to the skies. Parks, communities, and sanctuaries certified by the International Dark-Sky Association are slowly popping up all across the country.
If approved, Colorado’s proposed 3,000-square-mile Sangre de Cristo International Dark Sky Reserve would be the world’s largest dark-sky designated area. Even without the designation, the skies of Southwest Colorado—shielded from the interstate glow by endless mountains—blaze with stars.
Colorado’s Experience the Night tour takes you on a stargazing road trip through isolated mountain towns: The self-guided driving tour of Dark Sky communities and parks is the first of its kind in the country. Heather Balogh Rochfort, Road Trippers, October 2020
”Begin the trip in Westcliffe. At an elevation of 7,867 feet, it’s Colorado’s first designated International Dark Sky Community (and the highest such community in the world). Situated smack in the middle of the Wet Mountain Valley, starry views are easy to find with the Sangre Mountains in the west and the Wet Mountains in the east as rugged backdrops. For a special treat, be sure to visit the Smokey Jack Observatory in Bluff Park. Constructed in 2015, Smokey Jack boasts a retractable roof and a 14-inch telescope with computer-guiding to aid visitors in tracking their favorite heavenly bodies.”
Preserving the Dark Skies for Stargazing and the Environment, Subaru Drive, November, 2020
How and why more towns, parks and nature preserves are applying for stargazing certification from the International Dark-Sky Association.
Your Guide to Finding Calm in Colorado This Year: Our 2019 toolbox of strategies, places, workouts, and resources to help you chill out, by Julie Dugdale, 5280 Health, January, 2019
Starry-Eyed: Replenish your soul under the brilliance of an unfettered night sky. Few experiences are as awe-inspiring as staring up into an endless blanket of glowing stars on a clear night. Maybe it’s the heightened awareness of your own smallness in the grand scheme of the universe or the wonder of considering how all those stars came to be. “Preserving our dark skies is important to feeling at peace as a human,” says Andrew Miller, board member of Dark Skies of the Wet Mountain Valley, a nonprofit that worked to make Custer County a certified Dark Sky Community. “Connecting with the night sky above us is one of the oldest human activities. In fact, some of the oldest art in the world depicts the night sky.”
Smokey Jack Observatory Brings Boom in Tourism to Custer County, Dark Skies of the Wet Mountain Valley, July 23, 2018
Westcliffe & Silver Cliff, CO – July 23, 2018 – Three years after the construction and dedication of the Smokey Jack Observatory (SJO), locals and tourists from all over the world are flocking to visit the Wet Mountain Valley to see our pristine night skies through the lens of a state-of-the-art, 14-inch telescope.
International Dark Sky Association Westcliffe, CO, NHK TV, Japan, March, 2017
NHK is the Japanese national public broadcaster and has developed an episode on human missions to Mars for their weekly astronomy program, "Cosmic Front NEXT" to include a 3-minute segment on Westcliffe's dark skies recorded on December 3–5, 2016.
The Towns That Embraced Darkness to See Starlight, CNN "Great Big Story", September 15, 2016
Light pollution is no joke. As our cities grow bigger and brighter, fewer Americans get to take in the breathtaking grandeur of the Milky Way. Sensing this, the residents of Westcliffe and Silver Cliff, two small towns in Colorado, purposefully dimmed their towns' lights. Their night skies are now among the darkest on the planet and have become a Mecca for stargazers.
A Colorado town goes dark to let the Milky Way shine bright, NBC, The Today Show, November 20, 2016
In many cities across the country, artificial light is making it more difficult to see stars in the night sky. Reporting for Sunday TODAY, NBC’s Harry Smith travels to a small town in Colorado where residents are putting covers on lights in order to take back the night.
How a Colorado Valley Became the Center of the Milky Way, Colorado Independent, September 9, 2016
Just after sunset in the tiny town of Westcliffe, 147 miles south and west of Denver, two dozen people begin gathering in the Bluff, a park on the edge of town.
The hilly Bluff overlooks the Wet Mountain Valley, and just a bit farther, the Sangre de Cristo mountains...
The Colorado towns that turned up the stars, CityLab, The Atlantic , September 30, 2016
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Colorado Towns Work to Preserve a Diminishing Resource: Darkness, New York Times, August 12, 2016
WESTCLIFFE, Colo. — As people around the world stepped into their backyards or onto rooftops to peer up at the annual spectacle of the Perseid meteor shower early on Friday morning, few of them had a view like Wilson Jarvis and Steve Linderer.