{
  "title": "Dark Skies Directory",
  "description": "Plan travel and camping around eclipses, aurora, meteor showers, and certified dark sky places across the United States and Canada.",
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      {
        "slug": "stargazing-for-beginners",
        "title": "Stargazing for Kids and Beginners: Your First Night Out",
        "description": "A warm, no-telescope-required guide to your first stargazing night: what to bring, red lights, finding the Big Dipper, and picking a dark sky spot.",
        "body_md": "You do not need a telescope, a car full of gear, or a science degree to have a great first night under the stars. Bring warm layers, a red flashlight, and some patience while your eyes adjust, and within thirty minutes almost anyone can find the Big Dipper, the North Star, and a few hundred more stars than they knew were up there. This guide walks kids and total beginners through exactly what to pack, how to see more with just your eyes or a pair of binoculars, and how to pick a night and a place that will actually be dark enough to show off the sky. ## What to Bring on Your First Night Out Keep the gear list short. DarkSky International's camping tips call for warm clothing, blankets or a sleeping bag, a reclining chair or ground mat, snacks, and a warm drink, since even a summer evening cools off fast once the sun is down [DarkSky International](https://darksky.org/news/10-tips-for-a-stellar-darksky-camping-experience/). Add a headlamp or flashlight with a red-light setting (or red cellophane taped over a regular light), a fully charged phone with a stargazing app loaded before you leave cell service, and, if you have them, a pair of binoculars [DarkSky International](https://darksky.org/news/10-tips-for-a-stellar-darksky-camping-experience/). | Bring | Why |\n|---|---|\n| Warm layers, blanket, or sleeping bag | Temperatures drop fast after dark, even in summer [DarkSky International](https://darksky.org/news/10-tips-for-a-stellar-darksky-camping-experience/) |\n| Red flashlight or headlamp | Preserves night vision better than a white light [National Park Service](https://www.nps.gov/articles/dark-adaptation-of-the-human-eye-and-the-value-of-red-flashlights.htm) |\n| Reclining chair or ground mat | Looking straight up is much easier lying back than standing [DarkSky International](https://darksky.org/news/10-tips-for-a-stellar-darksky-camping-experience/) |\n| Binoculars (7x35 or similar) | See roughly 30 times more stars than the naked eye alone [Sky & Telescope](https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-equipment/binoculars-for-astronomy/) |\n| Snacks and a warm drink | Makes waiting through dark adaptation more fun for kids [DarkSky International](https://darksky.org/news/10-tips-for-a-stellar-darksky-camping-experience/) |\n| Star chart or app, downloaded ahead | Many dark sky sites have no cell signal [DarkSky International](https://darksky.org/news/10-tips-for-a-stellar-darksky-camping-experience/) | Check the forecast for clear skies before you go, and try to plan around a new moon or a night when the moon has already set, since a bright moon washes out fainter stars the way a streetlight does [NASA Night Sky Network](https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/news/162). For a specific date, [/moon](/moon) tracks the current phase and moonrise and moonset times. ## Protect Your Night Vision: Dark Adaptation and Red Lights Your eyes need real time to adjust to darkness. The pupil widens to its maximum within a few minutes, but the eye's rhodopsin, the light-sensitive chemical that powers true night vision, takes roughly 20 to 40 minutes to build up enough for you to notice the benefit [National Park Service](https://www.nps.gov/articles/dark-adaptation-of-the-human-eye-and-the-value-of-red-flashlights.htm). NASA's Night Sky Network puts the practical number at about 30 minutes before faint stars really pop [NASA Night Sky Network](https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/news/162). The catch is that it only takes a few seconds of bright white light, a phone screen, car headlights, a friend's flashlight, to undo that adjustment and send you back to the start [National Park Service](https://www.nps.gov/articles/dark-adaptation-of-the-human-eye-and-the-value-of-red-flashlights.htm). That is why every ranger-led stargazing program hands out the same advice: use a dim red light instead of white. Red wavelengths do not trigger the same breakdown of rhodopsin that white light does, so a red flashlight lets you read a map or find a snack without losing your night vision [National Park Service](https://www.nps.gov/articles/dark-adaptation-of-the-human-eye-and-the-value-of-red-flashlights.htm). At Pinnacles National Park in California, rangers tell visitors to avoid checking phones or using headlights once their eyes have adjusted, and to give it the full 20 to 30 minutes before expecting to see much [National Park Service](https://www.nps.gov/thingstodo/pinnacles-night-sky-viewing.htm). If a phone screen is unavoidable, most phones have a red-tinted night mode, or a piece of red cellophane over the screen does the same job. ## Find the Big Dipper, Then the North Star Once your eyes are adjusted, the Big Dipper is the best place for a beginner to start, and it is also the key to finding true north without a compass. Look for seven stars that form a pot shape with a bent handle, low in the north sky. The two stars at the outer edge of the \"bowl,\" named Dubhe and Merak and nicknamed the Pointers, line up almost exactly with Polaris, the North Star, about five times the distance between them away [EarthSky](https://earthsky.org/tonight/use-big-dipper-to-locate-polaris-the-north-star/). NASA describes the trick the same simple way: find the Big Dipper, and the two stars on the end of its cup point the way to Polaris [NASA Science](https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/what-is-the-north-star-and-how-do-you-find-it/). Polaris is not the brightest star in the sky, but it is usually easy to spot even with some light pollution, and because it sits almost exactly above Earth's rotational axis, it barely seems to move while every other star wheels around it over the course of the night [NASA Science](https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/what-is-the-north-star-and-how-do-you-find-it/). Face Polaris and you are facing geographic north, a trick worth teaching kids the very first night out [EarthSky](https://earthsky.org/tonight/use-big-dipper-to-locate-polaris-the-north-star/). One seasonal catch: the Big Dipper is easiest to see in Northern Hemisphere evenings during spring, and hardest in autumn, though from anywhere north of about latitude 35°N (roughly the Tennessee-Georgia line) it never fully sets and can be found on any clear night of the year [EarthSky](https://earthsky.org/tonight/use-big-dipper-to-locate-polaris-the-north-star/). For more star patterns to try next, see [/constellations](/constellations). ## Binoculars Before Telescopes The single best upgrade for a beginner is not a telescope, it is a pair of binoculars you already own or can borrow. Sky & Telescope's buying guide is blunt about it: binoculars are lighter, cheaper, and far easier to carry outside and use than a telescope, and because you look through them with both eyes, images stay right-side up and feel natural instead of upside down [Sky & Telescope](https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-equipment/binoculars-for-astronomy/). Even a basic 7x35 pair jumps you from around 3,000 naked-eye stars to roughly 100,000 visible stars, and the wider field of view makes it much easier to actually locate what you are looking for compared with a telescope's narrow view [Sky & Telescope](https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-equipment/binoculars-for-astronomy/). Common beginner-friendly specs are 7x35, 7x50, 8x40, and 10x50 (the first number is magnification, the second is the aperture in millimeters), with 7x models being the steadiest to hold by hand [Sky & Telescope](https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-equipment/binoculars-for-astronomy/). Practicing star-hopping with binoculars, sweeping from a known star to a fainter target, builds exactly the navigation skill needed to point a telescope later, so nothing about starting with binoculars is a step backward [Sky & Telescope](https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-equipment/binoculars-for-astronomy/). Save the telescope purchase for after a few binocular nights, once you know whether the hobby has stuck. ## Free Apps and Star Charts Worth Downloading You do not need to buy anything to start identifying what you see. Stellarium, an open-source planetarium program with free desktop and mobile versions, points your device at the sky and names every star, planet, and constellation in view [Stellarium](https://stellarium.org/). If you would rather go paper-based (a good backup for spots with no signal), Skymaps.com publishes a free, two-page printable star chart every month covering the evening sky, plus a short list of what is worth pointing binoculars at that month [Skymaps.com](https://www.skymaps.com/). NASA's Night Sky Network also recommends checking your location's light-pollution rating on the Bortle scale, a 1-to-9 scale of sky darkness, using a free light pollution map before you head out, so you know what to expect once you arrive [NASA Night Sky Network](https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/news/162). Whichever app or chart you use, download or print it before you leave cell service. Many of the best dark sky sites, by design, have little to no connectivity once you are away from the visitor center. ## Junior Ranger Night Explorer and Other Family Astronomy Programs If your family already visits national parks, there is a built-in astronomy badge waiting for you. The National Park Service's Junior Ranger Night Explorer program is aimed at kids roughly ages 5 to 12 and walks them through finding the North Star, tracking the moon's phases, and even inventing their own constellation myths [National Park Service](https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nightskies/juniorrangernight.htm). Kids can complete the activity booklet at the park with a ranger's signature, or download it and finish it at home, with a Spanish-language version also available [National Park Service](https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nightskies/juniorrangernight.htm). In Canada, the equivalent is the Parks Canada Xplorers program, which runs at participating national parks and historic sites in every province and territory. Kids ask for an activity booklet when they arrive, complete challenges tied to that specific site, and earn a collectible reward when they finish [Parks Canada](https://parks.canada.ca/voyage-travel/experiences/famille-family/xplorateurs-xplorers). Local astronomy clubs fill in the gaps between park visits: the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada's network of city centers welcomes youth groups and families to public observing nights and notes that little to no equipment is needed to get started [RASC](https://rasc.ca/star-finder/schools-youth-groups). Check [/events](/events) for upcoming meteor showers and other dates worth building a family stargazing night around, and see [/kids](/kids) for more family-specific stargazing guidance. ## A Simple Seasonal Stargazing Checklist The sky is not the same every month, and knowing what is easy to find in each season takes the guesswork out of a first night. | Season (Northern Hemisphere) | Easiest thing to find | Why now |\n|---|---|---|\n| Winter | Orion the Hunter | Best evening visibility from around December through February; look for three bright belt stars in a short, straight row, flanked by red Betelgeuse and blue Rigel [EarthSky](https://earthsky.org/tonight/orion-the-hunter-is-easy-to-spot/) |\n| Spring | The Big Dipper and Polaris | Spring evenings are the best time of year to see the Big Dipper high in the northeast [EarthSky](https://earthsky.org/tonight/use-big-dipper-to-locate-polaris-the-north-star/) |\n| Summer | The Summer Triangle | Vega, Deneb, and Altair climb high overhead by August and September evenings and anchor the summer Milky Way [EarthSky](https://earthsky.org/favorite-star-patterns/summer-triangle-asterism-vega-deneb-altair/) |\n| Autumn | Polaris and circumpolar stars | The Big Dipper sits lowest in autumn, so lean on Polaris and the stars that never set for orientation [EarthSky](https://earthsky.org/tonight/use-big-dipper-to-locate-polaris-the-north-star/) | Whatever the season, plan around the new moon when you can, since a bright moon behaves like a giant streetlight and drowns out the fainter stars you are trying to learn [NASA Night Sky Network](https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/news/162). [/moon](/moon) has the current phase and next new moon date if you want to time a trip around it. ## Picking a Nearby Dark Sky Place City light pollution is the single biggest reason a first stargazing trip disappoints, so it is worth driving somewhere genuinely dark at least once. Certified dark sky parks are a safe bet because they have already been measured and protected for sky quality. Cherry Springs State Park in north-central Pennsylvania, easy driving distance for much of the East Coast, has 60 to 85 nights a year with ideal viewing conditions [DarkSky International](https://darksky.org/places/cherry-springs-state-park-dark-sky-park/). Farther west, Great Basin National Park in eastern Nevada offers some of the darkest skies in the country with none of the crowds of better-known parks [DarkSky International](https://darksky.org/places/great-basin-national-park-dark-sky-park/). Browse the full, searchable list of certified parks, reserves, and communities across the US and Canada at [/places](/places), and see [/dark-sky-parks](/dark-sky-parks) for a longer guide to choosing one near you. For a deeper dive into how light pollution works and why some towns and parks are darker than others, [/learn](/learn) breaks down the science in plain language, and [/research](/research) links to the primary datasets and agencies behind it. ## Quick Answers **Do I need a telescope to start stargazing?**\nNo. Sky & Telescope's own buying advice for beginners is to start with binoculars or just your eyes, since a telescope's narrow field of view actually makes it harder to find things until you already know your way around the sky [Sky & Telescope](https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-equipment/binoculars-for-astronomy/). **How dark does it need to be?**\nDark enough that the moon is dim or below the horizon and you are away from bright ground lights, since even a bright moon can wash out fainter stars the way a streetlight would [NASA Night Sky Network](https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/news/162). Checking a location's Bortle scale rating beforehand tells you roughly what to expect [NASA Night Sky Network](https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/news/162). **What's the easiest thing to spot in the night sky?**\nThe Big Dipper, especially on a spring evening in the Northern Hemisphere, followed by using its two Pointer stars to find Polaris, the North Star [EarthSky](https://earthsky.org/tonight/use-big-dipper-to-locate-polaris-the-north-star/). **How long does it take my eyes to adjust to the dark?**\nPupils widen within a few minutes, but full night vision from rhodopsin buildup takes roughly 20 to 40 minutes, and a single glance at a white light resets the clock [National Park Service](https://www.nps.gov/articles/dark-adaptation-of-the-human-eye-and-the-value-of-red-flashlights.htm). **Is stargazing good for kids?**\nYes, and the National Park Service built a program around it: Junior Ranger Night Explorer lets kids ages roughly 5 to 12 earn a badge by finding the North Star, tracking moon phases, and inventing constellation stories, either at a park or at home [National Park Service](https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nightskies/juniorrangernight.htm). **What app should beginners use?**\nStellarium is free, works offline once loaded, and points your phone at the sky to name whatever you see, no subscription required [Stellarium](https://stellarium.org/).",
        "hero_image": "/images/stargazing-for-beginners.webp",
        "category": "kids",
        "published_at": "2026-09-23T00:00:00.000Z",
        "updated_at": "2026-09-23T00:00:00.000Z",
        "sources_json": "[{\"title\":\"Junior Ranger Night Explorer (National Park Service)\",\"url\":\"https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nightskies/juniorrangernight.htm\"},{\"title\":\"Dark Adaptation of the Human Eye and the Value of Red Flashlights (National Park Service)\",\"url\":\"https://www.nps.gov/articles/dark-adaptation-of-the-human-eye-and-the-value-of-red-flashlights.htm\"},{\"title\":\"Night Sky Viewing at Pinnacles National Park (National Park Service)\",\"url\":\"https://www.nps.gov/thingstodo/pinnacles-night-sky-viewing.htm\"},{\"title\":\"What Is the North Star and How Do You Find It? (NASA Science)\",\"url\":\"https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/what-is-the-north-star-and-how-do-you-find-it/\"},{\"title\":\"Use the Big Dipper to Find Polaris, the North Star (EarthSky)\",\"url\":\"https://earthsky.org/tonight/use-big-dipper-to-locate-polaris-the-north-star/\"},{\"title\":\"Binoculars for Astronomy: Ultimate Guide to Selecting and Buying (Sky & Telescope)\",\"url\":\"https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-equipment/binoculars-for-astronomy/\"},{\"title\":\"Night Sky Notes: Stargazing for Beginners (NASA Night Sky Network)\",\"url\":\"https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/news/162\"},{\"title\":\"10 Tips for a Stellar DarkSky Camping Experience (DarkSky International)\",\"url\":\"https://darksky.org/news/10-tips-for-a-stellar-darksky-camping-experience/\"},{\"title\":\"Stellarium Astronomy Software\",\"url\":\"https://stellarium.org/\"},{\"title\":\"Skymaps.com Free Monthly Star Charts\",\"url\":\"https://www.skymaps.com/\"},{\"title\":\"Parks Canada Xplorers Program\",\"url\":\"https://parks.canada.ca/voyage-travel/experiences/famille-family/xplorateurs-xplorers\"},{\"title\":\"Schools & Youth Groups (Royal Astronomical Society of Canada)\",\"url\":\"https://rasc.ca/star-finder/schools-youth-groups\"},{\"title\":\"Orion the Hunter Is Easy to Spot (EarthSky)\",\"url\":\"https://earthsky.org/tonight/orion-the-hunter-is-easy-to-spot/\"},{\"title\":\"Summer Triangle: Star Pattern of the Season (EarthSky)\",\"url\":\"https://earthsky.org/favorite-star-patterns/summer-triangle-asterism-vega-deneb-altair/\"},{\"title\":\"Cherry Springs State Park (DarkSky International)\",\"url\":\"https://darksky.org/places/cherry-springs-state-park-dark-sky-park/\"},{\"title\":\"Great Basin National Park (DarkSky International)\",\"url\":\"https://darksky.org/places/great-basin-national-park-dark-sky-park/\"}]",
        "hero_alt": "A family lying on a blanket looking up at a star-filled night sky"
      },
      {
        "slug": "space-movies",
        "title": "10 Best Space Movies About Eclipses, Comets and Meteors",
        "description": "The 10 best space movies built on a real eclipse, comet, meteor or night sky, with each film's year, director and a sourced real-science accuracy check.",
        "body_md": "The best space movies built around a real celestial event are Contact, Deep Impact, Armageddon, Don't Look Up, Melancholia, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Apollo 13, Interstellar, Nope and October Sky. Each one hangs its story on a genuine comet, asteroid, real space mission or the plain night sky, not just generic space opera. Below is the year, director and a link to a reliable film database for each pick, plus a sourced \"how real is it\" check from the astronomers, NASA scientists and researchers who actually study this stuff. ## Movies that get comets and asteroids right (and wrong) **Deep Impact (1998)**, directed by [Mimi Leder](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120647/), follows a comet on a collision course with Earth. It is the most scientifically careful of the big 1990s disaster movies: [CU Boulder planetary scientist Joshua Colwell](https://www.colorado.edu/today/1998/05/04/cu-boulder-researcher-was-scientific-consultant) flew out to Hollywood as a consultant and calculated how large a tsunami a comet impact of a given size and angle would actually generate. [The Planetary Society](https://www.planetary.org/articles/planetary-defense-in-the-movies) still calls it \"a breath of fresh air\" next to its rival. That rival is **Armageddon (1998)**, directed by [Michael Bay](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120591/), in which an asteroid the size of Texas is split by an underground nuclear blast with 18 days' notice. Astronomer Phil Plait has counted the errors, noting the film would need an explosion \"the energy of the sun itself\" to work and that a bomb powerful enough would be more dangerous than the rock ([Live Science](https://www.livescience.com/47864-armageddon-film-asteroid-science.html)). The Planetary Society is blunter: the film's 18-day timeline is \"extraordinarily unrealistic,\" since real planetary defense needs years of advance warning, not weeks ([planetary.org](https://www.planetary.org/articles/planetary-defense-in-the-movies)). Its director later argued the film's premise, sending a spacecraft to nudge an asteroid off course, predicted NASA's real 2022 DART mission, which slammed a probe into the asteroid moon Dimorphos to test exactly that idea ([Yahoo News](https://news.yahoo.com/michael-bay-says-armageddon-predicted-165001818.html)). **Don't Look Up (2021)**, directed by [Adam McKay](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11286314/), is a satire in which astronomers discover a comet on a direct impact course and can't get anyone to act. Planetary defense astronomer Dr. Amy Mainzer, who co-discovered Comet NEOWISE, consulted on the film and confirms the comet's size (about 9 kilometers wide) really would be \"large enough to cause a problem,\" while stressing that an extinction-level impact of this kind is genuinely rare ([Netflix Tudum](https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/astronomer-dr-amy-mainzer-on-the-real-science-in-dont-look-up-movie)). It is the strongest entry here for anyone who wants a comet movie about how the science actually gets discovered and reported. ## Movies about the night sky, UFOs and first contact **Contact (1997)**, directed by [Robert Zemeckis](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118884/) from Carl Sagan's novel, centers on a radio astronomer who picks up a real signal from the star Vega using a giant radio telescope array. On NPR's Science Movie Club, an [NRAO radio astronomer](https://www.npr.org/2020/05/20/859365245/science-movie-club-contact) walked through the film scene by scene and found it \"got a lot of things right, and a few things wrong\" about how SETI and radio astronomy actually work, a rare case of a Hollywood alien movie getting the instruments right even when the ending goes speculative. **Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)**, directed by [Steven Spielberg](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075860/), takes its title and its entire classification system from a real astronomer: [J. Allen Hynek](https://www.history.com/articles/j-allen-hynek-ufos-project-blue-book), the US Air Force's chief scientific consultant on UFO sightings for Project Blue Book, who coined \"close encounters of the first, second and third kind\" to categorize witness reports and even appears briefly on screen. It remains one of the best movies about aliens precisely because its night sky imagery is built on real 1970s UFO-report language rather than invented sci-fi jargon. **Nope (2022)**, directed by [Jordan Peele](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10954984/), turns a UFO hovering behind clouds into the horror hook, with the sky itself going strange over a family ranch. The saucer creature was not invented from scratch: marine biologist Kelsi Rutledge consulted on its design, basing its cloud camouflage on real cuttlefish pigment cells and its saucer shape on sand dollars, and even wrote it up with a formal (fictional) species name ([Science Friday](https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/nope-jordan-peele-animal-science-aliens/)). The eclipse-like moments of the sky darkening are pure filmmaking, not real astronomy, but the creature hiding inside them is grounded in actual animal biology. ## Real space missions on screen **Apollo 13 (1995)**, directed by [Ron Howard](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112384/), dramatizes the real 1970 NASA mission that nearly stranded three astronauts after an oxygen tank exploded en route to the Moon. Real Apollo 13 commander Jim Lovell reviewed the sets and said the instrument panels and switches were \"exactly what it looks like inside,\" and the [World Science Festival's frame-by-frame review](https://www.worldsciencefestival.com/2014/04/cinema_peer_review_how_accurate_was_apollo_13/) calls it one of the most scientifically faithful NASA movies ever made, flagging only a handful of small errors (the famous line was really \"we've had a problem,\" not \"we have a problem\"). It is regularly ranked among the greatest sci-fi and space films for exactly this reason: almost none of it is fiction. **Interstellar (2014)**, directed by [Christopher Nolan](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0816692/), is built around a black hole named Gargantua and a wormhole used for interstellar travel. Physicist Kip Thorne, an executive producer and science advisor, didn't just check the script; his visual effects team's black hole rendering method was published as a real peer-reviewed paper in the journal Classical and Quantum Gravity, and Thorne said the new imaging technique \"will be of great value to astrophysicists\" studying real black holes ([Space.com](https://www.space.com/28552-interstellar-movie-black-holes-study.html)). Few black hole movies can claim their special effects work doubled as actual astrophysics research. ## When the sky itself becomes the villain **Melancholia (2011)**, directed by [Lars von Trier](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1527186/), imagines a rogue planet drifting past Earth, passing in front of the sun in an eclipse-like transit before a final collision. The real odds are reassuring: astrophysicists put the actual chance of a planetary collision at \"zero, for at least the next 10 or 20 million years,\" rising to roughly 1 percent only five billion years from now as the solar system slowly destabilizes ([Slate](https://slate.com/technology/2011/11/lars-von-trier-s-melancholia-what-are-the-chances-of-a-planetary-collision.html)). The same analysis notes that if such a collision ever did happen, it would unfold catastrophically within a single day, not the slow, dreamlike approach the film shows. ## Kid-friendly picks **October Sky (1999)**, directed by [Joe Johnston](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0132477/), is the most kid-friendly entry on this list and the most literally true. It dramatizes real West Virginia teenager Homer Hickam, who watched the Soviet satellite Sputnik 1 cross the night sky over his coal-mining town in October 1957 and was inspired to start building his own rockets ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_Sky)); Hickam went on to a real NASA career training astronauts. Paired with Apollo 13 and the PG-rated Close Encounters, it makes a solid family movie night before a real backyard stargazing session; see our [stargazing for beginners](/stargazing-for-beginners) guide and [kids' space page](/kids) for how to plan one. ## Watch these before our own next eclipse or meteor shower Melancholia and Nope both use eclipse-style imagery for dramatic effect, but neither shows a real transit. If you want to see one for yourself, the next total solar eclipse to cross the contiguous US is not until [August 12, 2045](https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEpath/SEpath2001/SE2045Aug12Tpath.html), running from northern California through Texas to Florida with totality lasting over 6 minutes near Camden, Alabama ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_August_12,_2045)); see our [eclipses hub](/eclipses) for the full US and Canada schedule. For something sooner, pair an October Sky rewatch with the [Perseids meteor shower](/meteor-showers), which peaks around August 12 most years and is forecast to be an especially dark, moon-free night in 2028 for prime viewing ([American Meteor Society](https://amsmeteors.org/meteor-showers/meteor-shower-calendar/); [full moon calendar](https://www.cyclecalcs.com/full-moon-calendar.html)). Check our [events calendar](/events) for the full list of upcoming meteor showers, full moons and eclipses. ## Quick answers **What movie has the most accurate eclipse scene?** No mainstream movie recreates a real solar eclipse with strict accuracy; Melancholia and Nope both use eclipse-like imagery dramatically rather than scientifically. For the real thing, NASA's own eclipse pages and our [eclipses hub](/eclipses) are more accurate than any film. **What are the best movies about comets?** Deep Impact and Don't Look Up are the strongest comet films, both reviewed favorably for realism by working astronomers and consultants ([Planetary Society](https://www.planetary.org/articles/planetary-defense-in-the-movies); [Netflix Tudum](https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/astronomer-dr-amy-mainzer-on-the-real-science-in-dont-look-up-movie)). **What's the most scientifically accurate space movie on this list?** Apollo 13, according to the real Apollo 13 crew and the [World Science Festival's review](https://www.worldsciencefestival.com/2014/04/cinema_peer_review_how_accurate_was_apollo_13/), and Interstellar's black hole, whose visual effects became a real published physics paper ([Space.com](https://www.space.com/28552-interstellar-movie-black-holes-study.html)). **Are there good kids' movies about space or eclipses?** October Sky and Apollo 13 are both PG and both true stories, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind is PG as well; see our [kids' page](/kids) for more family-friendly sky activities. **What movie predicted a real eclipse?** None, despite viral claims. A widely shared video claiming The Simpsons predicted the April 8, 2024 total solar eclipse was AI-generated fan content, not a real episode, and the show's own writers called such \"predictions\" meaningless ([fact-check via Yahoo](https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/video-claiming-show-simpsons-predict-194234069.html)). **What about newer movies like Spaceman on Netflix, or 2001: A Space Odyssey?** Both are worth watching, but neither centers on a real eclipse, comet, meteor or aurora the way the films above do; Spaceman is about isolation on a long-duration mission, and 2001 is a philosophical journey built around a fictional monolith, which is why they sit outside this specific, real-event-focused list.",
        "hero_image": "/images/space-movies.webp",
        "category": "culture",
        "published_at": "2026-09-23T00:00:00.000Z",
        "updated_at": "2026-09-23T00:00:00.000Z",
        "sources_json": "[\"https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118884/\",\"https://www.npr.org/2020/05/20/859365245/science-movie-club-contact\",\"https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120647/\",\"https://www.colorado.edu/today/1998/05/04/cu-boulder-researcher-was-scientific-consultant\",\"https://www.planetary.org/articles/planetary-defense-in-the-movies\",\"https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120591/\",\"https://www.livescience.com/47864-armageddon-film-asteroid-science.html\",\"https://news.yahoo.com/michael-bay-says-armageddon-predicted-165001818.html\",\"https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11286314/\",\"https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/astronomer-dr-amy-mainzer-on-the-real-science-in-dont-look-up-movie\",\"https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1527186/\",\"https://slate.com/technology/2011/11/lars-von-trier-s-melancholia-what-are-the-chances-of-a-planetary-collision.html\",\"https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075860/\",\"https://www.history.com/articles/j-allen-hynek-ufos-project-blue-book\",\"https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112384/\",\"https://www.worldsciencefestival.com/2014/04/cinema_peer_review_how_accurate_was_apollo_13/\",\"https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0816692/\",\"https://www.space.com/28552-interstellar-movie-black-holes-study.html\",\"https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10954984/\",\"https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/nope-jordan-peele-animal-science-aliens/\",\"https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0132477/\",\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_Sky\",\"https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/video-claiming-show-simpsons-predict-194234069.html\",\"https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEpath/SEpath2001/SE2045Aug12Tpath.html\",\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_August_12,_2045\",\"https://amsmeteors.org/meteor-showers/meteor-shower-calendar/\",\"https://www.cyclecalcs.com/full-moon-calendar.html\"]",
        "hero_alt": "A row of movie theater seats facing a screen showing a comet streaking across a starry night sky"
      },
      {
        "slug": "northern-lights",
        "title": "Where to See the Northern Lights in the US and Canada",
        "description": "See the northern lights in the US and Canada: best states, the Kp index, NOAA forecasts, best months, and phone camera tips for aurora photos.",
        "body_md": "The best places to see the northern lights in the US and Canada are the far-northern latitudes: Alaska, the northern tier of states from Minnesota to Maine, and across Canada from the Yukon and Northwest Territories through the northern provinces. You do not need a trip to Scandinavia. On an active night, a dark, north-facing horizon in Fairbanks, Yellowknife, Voyageurs National Park, or northern Michigan can put the aurora directly overhead, and [NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center](https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/communities/aurora-dashboard-experimental) publishes free forecasts that tell you exactly when a storm is strong enough to reach your latitude. ## How the Aurora Works and the Kp Index The aurora borealis happens when charged particles from the solar wind collide with gases in Earth's upper atmosphere, and geomagnetic storms strong enough to push that glow toward the poles' edges (and sometimes much further) are ranked on the planetary K-index, or Kp, a scale from 0 to 9 that NOAA's Aurora Dashboard breaks into bands: Kp 3 is \"quiet aurora,\" Kp 5 is \"moderate,\" Kp 7 is \"active,\" and Kp 9 is \"very active\" ([spaceweather.gov](https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/communities/aurora-dashboard-experimental)). The Kp value is calculated from a weighted average of K-indices reported by 13 geomagnetic observatories worldwide, and a Kp of 5 or higher marks an official geomagnetic storm ([Wikipedia, K-index](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K-index)). Each Kp step roughly moves the outer edge of visible aurora several degrees of latitude closer to the equator. NOAA's own G-scale (which maps to Kp) gives a useful rule of thumb for US viewing: | G-scale | Kp | Typical southern limit in the US |\n|---|---|---|\n| G1 | 5 | Northern Michigan, Maine |\n| G2 | 6 | New York, Idaho |\n| G3 | 7 | Illinois, Oregon |\n| G4 | 8 to 9 | Alabama, northern California |\n| G5 | 9 | Florida, southern Texas | (Table figures per NOAA's G-scale as summarized on [Wikipedia's K-index page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K-index).) Alaska, the Yukon, and the Northwest Territories sit directly under the \"auroral oval,\" the ring of peak activity, so they can see a bright display at Kp 2 or 3, long before it becomes visible anywhere in the Lower 48. ## Reading NOAA's Live Aurora Forecast Before any aurora trip, check [swpc.noaa.gov](https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/3-day-forecast) directly rather than relying on a social-media screenshot. NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center runs three free tools worth bookmarking: - The **3-Day Forecast** gives predicted Kp values and geomagnetic storm severity for the next three days ([swpc.noaa.gov/products/3-day-forecast](https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/3-day-forecast)).\n- The **Aurora 30-Minute Forecast** shows a live map of exactly how far south the aurora oval currently extends ([swpc.noaa.gov/products/aurora-30-minute-forecast](https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/aurora-30-minute-forecast)).\n- The **Aurora Dashboard** combines both into \"tonight and tomorrow night\" viewlines plus current solar wind conditions ([swpc.noaa.gov/communities/aurora-dashboard-experimental](https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/communities/aurora-dashboard-experimental)). Watch for a NOAA geomagnetic storm watch or warning (G1 through G5), then cross-reference against your own latitude using the table above. ## Best US States to See the Northern Lights Alaska is in a class of its own. Fairbanks sits beneath the auroral oval, and its official aurora season runs August 21 through April 21, when it is dark enough to see a display; locals see the aurora on about eight nights out of ten when skies are clear, and visitors who stay three nights or longer have better than 90 percent odds of a sighting ([Explore Fairbanks](https://www.explorefairbanks.com/explore-the-area/aurora-season/)). Outside Alaska, the northern tier of the Lower 48 is the reliable US zone, needing only a moderate G1 to G2 storm (Kp 5 to 6): | State | Good aurora spots | Notes |\n|---|---|---|\n| Alaska | Fairbanks, Denali, Utqiagvik | Aurora season Aug. 21 to Apr. 21; visible most clear nights ([Explore Fairbanks](https://www.explorefairbanks.com/explore-the-area/aurora-season/)) |\n| Minnesota | [Voyageurs National Park](https://darksky.org/places/voyageurs-national-park-dark-sky-park/), [Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness](https://darksky.org/places/boundary-waters-canoe-area-dark-sky-sanctuary/) | Voyageurs is a certified Dark Sky Park that promotes itself for aurora viewing ([NPS](https://www.nps.gov/voya/index.htm)) |\n| Michigan | [Keweenaw Dark Sky Park](https://darksky.org/places/keweenaw-michigan-dark-sky-park/), Headlands | Upper Peninsula's high latitude and low light pollution make it one of the best Midwest options |\n| Maine | Northern Maine woods, Acadia region | Reaches G1-level visibility (Kp 5) per NOAA's G-scale |\n| Montana, North Dakota | Glacier National Park area, prairie skies | Wide-open, low-light-pollution horizons for a G2-level (Kp 6) show |\n| Idaho, New York | Northern Idaho panhandle, Adirondacks | Typical G2 (Kp 6) southern limit per NOAA |\n| Washington, Wisconsin | North Cascades, Lake Superior shore | Occasional displays during G2-plus storms | ## Best Places in Canada: Yukon, the Northwest Territories, and the Northern Provinces Canada's best aurora country runs from the Yukon and Northwest Territories across the northern edges of the provinces: | Region | Good aurora spots | Season and notes |\n|---|---|---|\n| Northwest Territories | Yellowknife, [Wood Buffalo National Park](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_Buffalo_National_Park) (AB/NWT border) | Yellowknife sits directly under the auroral oval; fall season mid-August to late September, winter season mid-November to early April, with up to 240 active-aurora nights a year and a 98 percent chance of seeing the lights over any three-night stay ([Spectacular NWT](https://spectacularnwt.com/story/the-northern-lights-by-the-numbers/)) |\n| Yukon | Whitehorse and surrounding wilderness | Aurora season runs mid-August to mid-April, split into an autumn window (mid-August to mid-October) and a winter window (mid-October to early April); best viewing is 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. on clear, moonless nights ([Travel Yukon](https://www.travelyukon.com/en/media/northern-lights)) |\n| Alberta | [Wood Buffalo National Park](https://parks.canada.ca/pn-np/nt/woodbuffalo), [Jasper National Park](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jasper_National_Park) | Wood Buffalo is the world's largest Dark-Sky Preserve, straddling the Alberta/NWT border at nearly 60°N |\n| Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec | Northern Manitoba (Churchill area), Lake Superior Provincial Park, Mont-Tremblant | Farther south than the territories but still well north of the US border, with regular displays during moderate storms |\n| New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador | Mount Carleton Provincial Park, Terra Nova National Park | Atlantic Canada's darkest, most northerly provincial parks catch strong storms reaching the Maritimes | ## Best Months and Time of Night Aurora activity itself does not have a season, but darkness does, and the equinoxes tend to line up with more geomagnetic storm activity, making late August through April the practical viewing window across Alaska, the Yukon, and the NWT ([NOAA SWPC](https://www.spaceweather.gov/content/tips-viewing-aurora)). Within any clear night, the strongest displays cluster within an hour or two of local midnight, generally 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. ([NOAA SWPC](https://www.spaceweather.gov/content/tips-viewing-aurora)). A full moon washes out fainter aurora even though it does not weaken the storm itself, so check the [moon phase](/moon) for your travel dates and aim for a new moon or crescent when you can. ## Solar Cycle 25: The 2026 to 2028 Outlook We are currently past the peak of Solar Cycle 25. NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center places the cycle's maximum around July 2025, plus or minus eight months, which means elevated solar activity and a good chance of aurora-producing storms continues through 2026 and 2027 before gradually declining through 2028 ([NOAA SWPC, Solar Cycle 25 forecast update](https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/news/solar-cycle-25-forecast-update)). Practically, that means the next two to three years remain some of the best in over a decade for aurora chances at mid-latitudes, even as the long-term trend points toward quieter skies later in the decade. Check the [events calendar](/events) for the current outlook alongside meteor showers, eclipses, and full moons that might compete with or complement an aurora trip. ## Phone Camera Tips for Photographing the Aurora You do not need a dedicated camera to bring home aurora photos. Modern phones can capture surprisingly good shots with a few adjustments ([AccuWeather](https://www.accuweather.com/en/space-news/how-to-photograph-aurora-lights-on-your-phone/1854341)): - **Stabilize the phone.** Use a tripod, or brace it on a car roof, fence post, or rock. Any shake ruins a multi-second exposure.\n- **Turn off the flash** and clean the lens first.\n- **Tap to focus on the sky**, not on trees or foreground objects, and avoid zooming, which cuts the light the sensor receives.\n- **On an iPhone (12 or newer):** Night Mode should engage automatically in the dark (look for the yellow moon icon); tap the arrow at the top of the screen and slide the Night Mode exposure slider up to 10 to 30 seconds for a brighter capture.\n- **On a Samsung Galaxy S or Ultra phone:** switch to Pro Mode, set ISO to 800 to 1600, shutter speed to 5 to 10 seconds, manual focus to infinity, and use a 2-second timer to avoid shake.\n- **Shoot several frames.** Aurora brightens and fades quickly, and one exposure rarely captures the best moment.\n- **Add foreground.** A treeline, mountain, or parked car gives the photo scale and makes it more shareable.\n- **Keep the phone warm** between shots. Cold weather drains batteries fast in Alaska, the Yukon, and the NWT. ## Planning Your Aurora Trip Pick a date range using the Solar Cycle 25 outlook above, then narrow it with NOAA's [3-day forecast](https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/3-day-forecast) once you are within a week of travel. Choose a base near one of the certified [dark-sky parks](/dark-sky-parks) listed above so light pollution is not working against you, and build in at least two or three nights, since even NOAA's Fairbanks and Yellowknife statistics assume more than one attempt. Layer warm clothing (northern winters run well below freezing), bring a headlamp with a red-light mode to protect your night vision, and pack a phone battery pack for the cold-weather drain noted above. If the aurora forecast is quiet on a given night, many of these same northern parks and preserves are also excellent for [stargazing](/stargazing-for-beginners) or, depending on the calendar, a [meteor shower](/meteor-showers) peak, so check the full [places directory](/places) for backup options near your route. ## Quick answers **What Kp index do I need to see the northern lights?** From the northern US states you generally need Kp 5 to 6 (a G1 to G2 storm); from Alaska, the Yukon, or the Northwest Territories, Kp 2 to 3 is often enough because those regions sit under the auroral oval ([NOAA SWPC](https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/communities/aurora-dashboard-experimental)). **When is the best time of year to see the aurora in Alaska?** Fairbanks' aurora season runs August 21 through April 21, when the sky is dark enough; the aurora itself is active year-round but invisible during Alaska's bright summer nights ([Explore Fairbanks](https://www.explorefairbanks.com/explore-the-area/aurora-season/)). **Can you see the northern lights from the continental US (Lower 48)?** Yes, during moderate to strong geomagnetic storms. A G1 storm (Kp 5) can reach northern Michigan and Maine, and a G2 (Kp 6) can reach New York and Idaho ([Wikipedia, K-index](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K-index)). **How far south has the aurora been seen?** During the strongest storms on NOAA's scale, a G5 event (Kp 9) can push visible aurora as far south as Florida and southern Texas ([Wikipedia, K-index](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K-index)). **Do you need a camera to see the aurora, or can you see it with your eyes?** No camera is required; a strong display is easily visible to the naked eye. A phone camera on night mode simply captures color and detail that can look more vivid than what the eye perceives in dimmer shows ([AccuWeather](https://www.accuweather.com/en/space-news/how-to-photograph-aurora-lights-on-your-phone/1854341)). **What is the Kp index, exactly?** It is NOAA's 0-to-9 planetary geomagnetic activity scale, calculated from a weighted average of readings at 13 mid-latitude observatories worldwide; a value of 5 or higher marks an official geomagnetic storm ([Wikipedia, K-index](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K-index)).",
        "hero_image": "/images/northern-lights.webp",
        "category": "events",
        "published_at": "2026-09-23T00:00:00.000Z",
        "updated_at": "2026-09-23T00:00:00.000Z",
        "sources_json": "[\"https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/communities/aurora-dashboard-experimental\",\"https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/aurora-30-minute-forecast\",\"https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/3-day-forecast\",\"https://www.spaceweather.gov/content/tips-viewing-aurora\",\"https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/news/solar-cycle-25-forecast-update\",\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K-index\",\"https://www.explorefairbanks.com/explore-the-area/aurora-season/\",\"https://spectacularnwt.com/story/the-northern-lights-by-the-numbers/\",\"https://www.travelyukon.com/en/media/northern-lights\",\"https://www.accuweather.com/en/space-news/how-to-photograph-aurora-lights-on-your-phone/1854341\",\"https://darksky.org/places/voyageurs-national-park-dark-sky-park/\",\"https://www.nps.gov/voya/index.htm\",\"https://darksky.org/places/boundary-waters-canoe-area-dark-sky-sanctuary/\",\"https://darksky.org/places/keweenaw-michigan-dark-sky-park/\",\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_Buffalo_National_Park\",\"https://parks.canada.ca/pn-np/nt/woodbuffalo\",\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jasper_National_Park\"]",
        "hero_alt": "Green and purple aurora borealis curtains over a dark forest horizon in the northern United States"
      },
      {
        "slug": "moon-phases",
        "title": "Moon Phases, Moonrise and Moonset Explained",
        "description": "The eight moon phases explained, why moonrise shifts 50 minutes a day, how moon phase affects stargazing and meteors, and full moons through 2027.",
        "body_md": "The Moon moves through eight phases roughly every 29.5 days: new, waxing crescent, first quarter, waxing gibbous, full, waning gibbous, third quarter, and waning crescent, as it circles Earth and sunlight lights up a changing slice of its near side, according to [NASA](https://science.nasa.gov/moon/moon-phases/). Moonrise and moonset also creep about 50 minutes later each day because the Moon is sliding eastward along its own orbit, not just riding along with Earth's spin, [per EarthSky](https://earthsky.org/moon-phases/understandingmoonphases/). And because moonlight is bright enough to drown out faint stars and meteors, the phase you pick to go stargazing matters as much as the weather, [as EarthSky explains](https://earthsky.org/tonight/what-moon-phase-is-best-for-stargazing/). Below: every phase in plain language, why the clock keeps shifting, and a table of every full moon and supermoon from October 2026 through December 2027, plus a link to our live [/moon](/moon) tool for moonrise and moonset at your own location tonight. ## The Eight Moon Phases, in Order The Moon does not produce its own light. What changes from night to night is how much of its sunlit half faces Earth, and [NASA](https://science.nasa.gov/moon/moon-phases/) lists the cycle in this order: 1. **New Moon.** The Moon sits between Earth and the Sun, so its near side is unlit and it rises and sets with the Sun, invisible in the daytime sky.\n2. **Waxing Crescent.** A thin sliver of light appears on the right side (for Northern Hemisphere observers) and grows night by night.\n3. **First Quarter.** Exactly half the visible disk is lit. The Moon is high in the sky at sunset and sets around midnight.\n4. **Waxing Gibbous.** More than half the disk is lit, and the sliver of shadow keeps shrinking.\n5. **Full Moon.** The Moon sits opposite the Sun in the sky, its whole near side lit, rising around sunset and setting around sunrise.\n6. **Waning Gibbous.** The lit portion starts shrinking from the right edge.\n7. **Third Quarter** (also called last quarter). Half the disk is lit again, but the opposite half from first quarter, and the Moon now rises around midnight.\n8. **Waning Crescent.** A thin sliver remains, visible in the pre-dawn sky just before the cycle resets to new moon. That full cycle, new moon to new moon, is called a synodic month and averages 29.5 days. The Moon's actual orbit around Earth (one full 360-degree lap, relative to the stars) only takes about 27.3 days; the extra two days happen because Earth itself is moving around the Sun at the same time, so the Moon has to travel a little farther each month to catch back up into the same Sun-Earth-Moon alignment, [NASA notes](https://science.nasa.gov/moon/moon-phases/). ## Why Moonrise (and Moonset) Shift About 50 Minutes a Day If you watched the Moon rise at 8:00 p.m. last night, expect it closer to 8:50 p.m. tonight, not because Earth's rotation changed, but because the Moon itself moved. Each day the Moon travels about 12 to 13 degrees further east along its orbit, and Earth's rotation needs roughly 50 extra minutes to carry any given spot on the ground back around to where the Moon now sits, [EarthSky explains](https://earthsky.org/moon-phases/understandingmoonphases/). That 50-minute figure is an average: the actual daily shift can be as short as 20 to 30 minutes or as long as over an hour, depending on the season, your latitude, and the angle at which the Moon's path crosses the horizon. The [US Naval Observatory](https://aa.usno.navy.mil/faq/RST_defs) defines moonrise and moonset the same way it defines sunrise and sunset: the moment the Moon's upper edge crosses the horizon, adjusted for atmospheric refraction. Because the Moon is so much closer to Earth than the Sun, and its orbit is not a perfect circle, calculating exact rise and set times is more involved than for sunrise and sunset, which is why the Observatory publishes a [year-long rise and set table](https://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/RS_OneYear) rather than a simple formula. For a same-night answer without the math, our [/moon](/moon) tool calculates moonrise, moonset, and current phase for cities across the US and Canada, or for your own location, right in your browser. One side effect of this eastward drift: around the full moon nearest the September equinox (the Harvest Moon), the day-to-day shift shrinks to as little as 20 to 30 minutes at mid-northern latitudes, so the Moon seems to rise at nearly the same time several nights running, an effect [farmers once relied on](https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/full-moons/en/) to keep working fields after dark. ## How Moon Phase Changes What You Can See at Night Moonlight is sunlight, reflected, and a bright Moon in the sky works the same way as light pollution: it raises the sky's background brightness and buries anything faint. [EarthSky](https://earthsky.org/tonight/what-moon-phase-is-best-for-stargazing/) puts the difference in concrete terms: the Moon at first or third quarter is only about a sixth as bright as a full Moon, three nights before full it is already about half as bright as full, and a full Moon itself is brightest of all thanks to an effect called the opposition surge, where sunlight bounces straight back at Earth with no shadowing. That makes the **new moon week** the best stretch for faint targets: the Milky Way, dim deep-sky objects, and faint meteors are all easiest to see with no moonlight in the sky at all. Around full moon, plan around the Moon instead of against it: watch after moonset or before moonrise, or point away from the Moon's part of the sky. This is exactly the calculation that matters for meteor showers, where the \"shooting stars\" themselves are often faint: - The [Orionids](https://amsmeteors.org/meteor-showers/meteor-shower-calendar/) peak October 21, 2026 with the Moon largely out of the way, favoring the pre-dawn hours.\n- The [Leonids](https://amsmeteors.org/meteor-showers/meteor-shower-calendar/) peak November 17, 2026; watching after moonset gives the darkest skies.\n- The [Geminids](https://amsmeteors.org/meteor-showers/meteor-shower-calendar/), the year's most reliable shower, peak December 13, 2026 with the Moon setting in early evening, the single best meteor night of the stretch.\n- The [Ursids](https://amsmeteors.org/meteor-showers/meteor-shower-calendar/) peak December 22, 2026 under a bright Moon, so do not expect a big show.\n- The [Quadrantids](https://amsmeteors.org/meteor-showers/meteor-shower-calendar/) peak overnight January 3 to 4, 2027, with a narrow, cold-weather window. Our [/meteor-showers](/meteor-showers) calendar tracks moon illumination against every peak night, and the [/events](/events) hub lists these alongside every other date on this page. Bright, moonless weeks are also the nights worth building a trip to a certified dark-sky site around; see [/dark-sky-parks](/dark-sky-parks) for the full US and Canada list. ## Full Moon Names, Blue Moons, and Supermoons Long before electric light, farmers and other observers tracked the seasons by naming each month's full moon, a tradition the [Old Farmer's Almanac](https://www.farmersalmanac.com/full-moon-dates-and-times) still keeps and that [NASA](https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/full-moons/en/) traces back to a mix of Native American, colonial American, and European sources: October's Hunter's Moon (once the light hunters used to track game after harvest), December's Cold Moon, and so on through the year. A **supermoon** is not a separate phase; it is a full Moon that happens to coincide with perigee, the point in the Moon's slightly elliptical orbit where it is closest to Earth. At that distance the Moon can look [up to 14% bigger and 30% brighter](https://science.nasa.gov/moon/supermoons/) than the faintest (farthest) full Moon of the year, and supermoons cluster together, occurring three to four times in a row each year rather than being spread evenly across the calendar. A **blue moon** is unrelated to color: it is either the second full Moon in a single calendar month, or the third of four full Moons in one season, an event that comes around roughly every two and a half years, [per NASA](https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/full-moons/en/). None of the full moons below qualify as a blue moon; the next one is not on this table. ### Upcoming Full Moons and Supermoons, October 2026 to December 2027 | Date | Full Moon Name | Supermoon? |\n|---|---|---|\n| October 26, 2026 | Hunter's Moon | No |\n| November 24, 2026 | Beaver Moon | No |\n| December 23, 2026 | Cold Moon | Yes |\n| January 22, 2027 | Wolf Moon | Yes |\n| February 20, 2027 | Snow Moon | No |\n| March 22, 2027 | Worm Moon | No |\n| April 20, 2027 | Pink Moon | No |\n| May 20, 2027 | Flower Moon | No |\n| June 19, 2027 | Strawberry Moon | No |\n| July 18, 2027 | Buck Moon | No |\n| August 17, 2027 | Sturgeon Moon | No |\n| September 15, 2027 | Harvest Moon | No |\n| October 15, 2027 | Hunter's Moon | No |\n| November 14, 2027 | Beaver Moon | No |\n| December 13, 2027 | Cold Moon | No | Dates and names from the [CycleCalcs full moon calendar](https://www.cyclecalcs.com/full-moon-calendar.html) and the [Farmers' Almanac](https://www.farmersalmanac.com/full-moon-dates-and-times). Our [/events](/events) hub keeps this list current as new dates are added, alongside meteor showers and eclipses. ## Find Tonight's Moonrise, Moonset, and Phase Rather than sending you to a third-party lookup, darkskiesdirectory.com runs its own live tool. Open [/moon](/moon), pick a US or Canadian city from the list, or let it use your device's location, and it calculates the current phase, percent illuminated, and today's moonrise and moonset times directly in your browser using the open-source [SunCalc](https://github.com/mourner/suncalc) library, no lookup table or page reload needed. It is the fastest way to answer \"what phase is the Moon tonight\" or \"when does the Moon set where I am,\" and it pairs naturally with the [/meteor-showers](/meteor-showers) calendar and [/dark-sky-parks](/dark-sky-parks) directory when you are picking the darkest night for a trip. ## Quick Answers **What is the Moon's age today?**\n\"Moon age\" just means days elapsed since the most recent new moon, on a scale of 0 to about 29.5. Check [/moon](/moon) for today's phase and illumination percentage, which tracks directly with Moon age. **Why does the Moon have phases at all?**\nBecause the Moon orbits Earth while both orbit the Sun, the angle between the Sun, Earth, and Moon keeps changing, so the portion of the Moon's sunlit half that is visible from Earth keeps changing too, cycling fully about every 29.5 days, [per NASA](https://science.nasa.gov/moon/moon-phases/). **What's the difference between a supermoon and a regular full moon?**\nA supermoon is a full Moon that lines up with perigee, its closest approach to Earth in that month's orbit, making it up to [14% bigger and 30% brighter](https://science.nasa.gov/moon/supermoons/) than the year's most distant, faintest full Moon. Every other full Moon is simply an ordinary full Moon. **Does moon phase really affect stargazing and meteor showers?**\nYes. A full Moon is bright enough to wash out faint stars, the Milky Way, and dim meteors, while a new Moon leaves the sky at its darkest, [as EarthSky details](https://earthsky.org/tonight/what-moon-phase-is-best-for-stargazing/). For meteor showers specifically, checking the Moon's phase against the peak night matters as much as checking the weather forecast; see the [/meteor-showers](/meteor-showers) calendar. **Why does the Moon sometimes look upside down?**\nEveryone on Earth sees the same phase at the same moment, but observers in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres look in opposite directions to find the Moon in their sky, so its orientation, which pole appears \"up,\" flips between hemispheres, [EarthSky explains](https://earthsky.org/moon-phases/do-we-all-see-the-same-moon-phase/). It is a change in perspective, not a change in phase. **Can a full moon cause a lunar eclipse?**\nEvery lunar eclipse happens at full moon, since Earth can only fall between the Sun and Moon at that point in the cycle, though most full moons pass just above or below Earth's shadow and no eclipse occurs. February's 2027 full Snow Moon is one of the exceptions: it lines up with a [penumbral lunar eclipse on February 20, 2027](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_2027_lunar_eclipse), visible across North and South America though subtle to the naked eye, [per the eclipse map](https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/map/2027-february-20). See [/eclipses](/eclipses) for the full North American eclipse calendar.",
        "hero_image": "/images/moon-phases.webp",
        "category": "moon",
        "published_at": "2026-09-23T00:00:00.000Z",
        "updated_at": "2026-09-23T00:00:00.000Z",
        "sources_json": "[{\"title\":\"Moon Phases - NASA Science\",\"url\":\"https://science.nasa.gov/moon/moon-phases/\"},{\"title\":\"Supermoons - NASA Science\",\"url\":\"https://science.nasa.gov/moon/supermoons/\"},{\"title\":\"Supermoon, Blood Moon, Blue Moon and Harvest Moon - NASA Space Place\",\"url\":\"https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/full-moons/en/\"},{\"title\":\"Rise, Set, and Twilight Definitions - US Naval Observatory\",\"url\":\"https://aa.usno.navy.mil/faq/RST_defs\"},{\"title\":\"Table of Sunrise/Sunset, Moonrise/Moonset for an Entire Year - US Naval Observatory\",\"url\":\"https://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/RS_OneYear\"},{\"title\":\"4 Keys to Understanding Moon Phases - EarthSky\",\"url\":\"https://earthsky.org/moon-phases/understandingmoonphases/\"},{\"title\":\"Which Moon Phase Is Best for Stargazing? - EarthSky\",\"url\":\"https://earthsky.org/tonight/what-moon-phase-is-best-for-stargazing/\"},{\"title\":\"Do We All See the Same Moon Phase? - EarthSky\",\"url\":\"https://earthsky.org/moon-phases/do-we-all-see-the-same-moon-phase/\"},{\"title\":\"Full Moon Calendar - CycleCalcs\",\"url\":\"https://www.cyclecalcs.com/full-moon-calendar.html\"},{\"title\":\"Full Moon Dates and Times - Farmers' Almanac\",\"url\":\"https://www.farmersalmanac.com/full-moon-dates-and-times\"},{\"title\":\"Meteor Shower Calendar - American Meteor Society\",\"url\":\"https://amsmeteors.org/meteor-showers/meteor-shower-calendar/\"},{\"title\":\"February 2027 Lunar Eclipse - Wikipedia\",\"url\":\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_2027_lunar_eclipse\"},{\"title\":\"Eclipse Map, February 20, 2027 - timeanddate\",\"url\":\"https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/map/2027-february-20\"}]",
        "hero_alt": "The Moon's phases from thin crescent to full, shown in sequence against a dark night sky"
      },
      {
        "slug": "eclipses",
        "title": "Next Solar Eclipse in North America: 2026 to 2045",
        "description": "See every solar and lunar eclipse visible from the US and Canada through 2045, the 2033 and 2044/2045 total eclipses, eye safety, and eclipse travel tips.",
        "body_md": "The next total solar eclipse to touch US or Canadian soil will not happen until March 30, 2033, when totality sweeps across northern and western Alaska, so anyone hoping to stand in the Moon's shadow in the Lower 48 has to wait for August 23, 2044 (Montana, North Dakota, and Western Canada) or August 12, 2045, when a path runs coast to coast from California to Florida. In between, the US and Canada get a string of partial solar eclipses and several lunar eclipses worth planning a night around. Below is the full calendar of every solar and lunar eclipse touching North America between now and 2045, how to watch each type safely, and how to plan a trip around the ones that matter. ## Every Solar and Lunar Eclipse Visible from the US and Canada, 2026 to 2045 | Date | Type | Seen from US/Canada? | Details |\n|---|---|---|---|\n| April 8, 2024 | Total solar | Yes, totality | Path crossed Texas to Maine and Ontario to Newfoundland; already happened ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_April_8,_2024)) |\n| February 17, 2026 | Annular solar | No | Path crossed only Antarctic and sub-Antarctic waters ([NASA](https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEpath/SEpath2001/SE2026Feb17Apath.html)) |\n| March 3, 2026 | Total lunar | Yes, fully | Visible across all of North and Central America before dawn ([NASA](https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/moon/march-2026-total-lunar-eclipse-your-questions-answered/)) |\n| August 12, 2026 | Total solar | Partial only | Totality stayed over Greenland, Iceland, and Spain; North America saw partial coverage only ([NASA](https://science.nasa.gov/eclipses/future-eclipses/total-solar-eclipse-on-august-12-2026/)) |\n| August 27-28, 2026 | Partial lunar (96%) | Yes, fully | Visible coast to coast; West Coast caught it just after sunset, East Coast near midnight ([Space.com](https://www.space.com/stargazing/lunar-eclipses/where-will-the-partial-lunar-eclipse-on-aug-27-2026-be-visible-from)) |\n| February 6, 2027 | Annular solar | No | Path crosses Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, and West Africa ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_February_6,_2027)) |\n| February 20, 2027 | Penumbral lunar | Barely | Only the faint outer shadow grazes the Moon as it rises over the Americas ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_2027_lunar_eclipse)) |\n| August 2, 2027 | Total solar | Tiny partial only | Just far eastern Maine and Canada's Atlantic Provinces see a shallow bite; totality crosses North Africa and the Middle East ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_August_2,_2027)) |\n| January 12, 2028 | Partial lunar | Yes, fully | Visible coast to coast across the US and Canada ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_2028_lunar_eclipse)) |\n| January 26, 2028 | Annular solar | Partial, eastern NA | Annular path runs from South America to Spain, Portugal, and Morocco ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_January_26,_2028)) |\n| July 6, 2028 | Penumbral lunar | No | Fully visible only from the Eastern Hemisphere ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_2028_lunar_eclipse)) |\n| July 22, 2028 | Total solar | No | Totality crosses Australia and New Zealand only ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_July_22,_2028)) |\n| December 31, 2028 | Total lunar | Western NA only | Seen low in the west as the Moon sets over Alaska, western Canada, and the western US; missed east of the Rockies ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_2028_lunar_eclipse)) |\n| March 30, 2033 | Total solar | Yes, totality | Path crosses northern and western Alaska, including Nome and Utqiagvik ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_March_30,_2033), [NASA](https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEpath/SEpath2001/SE2033Mar30Tpath.html)) |\n| August 23, 2044 | Total solar | Yes, totality | Path crosses Montana, North Dakota, and Western Canada (BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Nunavut, NWT) ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_August_23,_2044), [NASA](https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEpath/SEpath2001/SE2044Aug23Tpath.html)) |\n| August 12, 2045 | Total solar | Yes, totality | Coast-to-coast path from northern California through the Gulf states to Florida ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_August_12,_2045), [NASA](https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEpath/SEpath2001/SE2045Aug12Tpath.html)) | Check our [events calendar](/events) closer to each date for exact local timing, and pair a trip with a stop at one of the certified [dark sky parks](/dark-sky-parks) near the path for a bonus night of stargazing before or after. ## The 2026 Eclipses Are Already Behind Us Four eclipses touched, or brushed past, North America earlier this year, and all of them have now happened. On February 17, 2026, an annular \"ring of fire\" solar eclipse traced a path across Antarctic and sub-Antarctic waters, so nobody in the US or Canada saw so much as a partial bite of the Sun that day ([NASA](https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEpath/SEpath2001/SE2026Feb17Apath.html)). Skywatchers had a much better night on March 3, 2026, when a total lunar eclipse turned the Moon a coppery red across all of North and Central America, with totality running from roughly 3:04 a.m. to 4:03 a.m. PST (6:04 to 7:03 a.m. EST) before dawn ([NASA](https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/moon/march-2026-total-lunar-eclipse-your-questions-answered/), [EarthSky](https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/total-lunar-eclipse-march-2-3-2026/)). On August 12, 2026, a total solar eclipse crossed Greenland, Iceland, northern Russia, and Spain, the first path of totality to cross mainland Europe in 27 years. North America never got totality, but it did see a partial show: Alaska saw 17 to 37 percent of the Sun covered in the morning, the northern US saw 3 to 28 percent around midday, and Canada saw anywhere from 5 to 53 percent depending on location, while Greenland's evening partial eclipse reached 79 percent coverage ([NASA](https://science.nasa.gov/eclipses/future-eclipses/total-solar-eclipse-on-august-12-2026/)). Two weeks later, on the night of August 27 into August 28, 2026, a deep partial lunar eclipse covered about 96 percent of the Moon and was visible to roughly 3.3 billion people worldwide, including observers coast to coast in the US and Canada, with the West Coast catching it just after sunset and the East Coast seeing maximum eclipse close to midnight local time ([Space.com](https://www.space.com/stargazing/lunar-eclipses/where-will-the-partial-lunar-eclipse-on-aug-27-2026-be-visible-from)). ## Total, Annular, Partial, and Penumbral: What Sets Them Apart A total solar eclipse happens when the Moon fully covers the Sun's disk, but only inside a narrow path of totality a few dozen to a few hundred kilometers wide; everywhere else sees a partial eclipse at best ([NASA](https://science.nasa.gov/eclipses/faq/)). An annular eclipse happens when the Moon is near the farthest point in its orbit and looks too small to fully cover the Sun, leaving a blazing \"ring of fire\" around it, which means an annular eclipse is never safe to view without a solar filter, even at its peak ([NASA](https://science.nasa.gov/eclipses/faq/)). A partial solar eclipse is simply any location outside the path of totality or annularity, where the Moon takes only a bite out of the Sun. Lunar eclipses work differently, and none of them require eye protection. A total lunar eclipse happens when the Moon passes fully into Earth's dark umbral shadow and typically turns a deep red or orange, popularly called a \"blood moon.\" A partial lunar eclipse only dips part of the Moon into that umbral shadow, and a penumbral lunar eclipse only grazes Earth's much fainter outer shadow, which is why penumbral eclipses like the ones in February 2027 and July 2028 are so easy to miss with the naked eye ([Canadian Space Agency](https://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/astronomy/eclipses/lunar-eclipses.asp), [NASA](https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/eclipses/overview)). ## Eye Safety: How to Watch a Solar Eclipse Without Damaging Your Eyes Looking at any part of a partial or annular solar eclipse, or at the partial phases before and after totality, requires certified solar filters at all times; the only moment it is briefly safe to look with the naked eye is during the seconds or minutes of full totality inside the path itself ([NASA](https://science.nasa.gov/eclipses/safety/)). Safe eclipse glasses and handheld solar viewers must meet the international ISO 12312-2:2015 standard, which blocks all but a tiny fraction of visible sunlight along with the ultraviolet and infrared radiation that can burn the retina without any pain to warn you ([AAS](https://eclipse.aas.org/eye-safety/iso12312-2)). Ordinary sunglasses, no matter how dark, do not meet this standard and are never safe for looking at the Sun ([NASA](https://science.nasa.gov/eclipses/safety/)). Before using any eclipse glasses, inspect them for scratches, punctures, or loose filters, and never look through a camera, telescope, or binoculars using ordinary eclipse glasses as the filter, since the concentrated sunlight can burn straight through them; those instruments need their own certified solar filters mounted over the front lens ([AAS](https://eclipse.aas.org/eye-safety/viewers-filters)). The American Astronomical Society keeps an updated list of reputable ISO 12312-2 suppliers if you are buying glasses for a trip, and it is worth checking before an eclipse date rather than the week of, since counterfeit glasses have shown up in past eclipse years ([AAS](https://eclipse.aas.org/eye-safety/viewers-filters)). If you are watching with [kids](/kids), plan on direct supervision the entire time the Sun is even partly uncovered. None of this applies to lunar eclipses: a total, partial, or penumbral lunar eclipse is always safe to watch with the naked eye, no filters needed. ## The Landmark Eclipses Worth Building a Trip Around Three eclipses stand out from the rest of this list because they put real totality over accessible ground in North America. The first is March 30, 2033, when the path of totality crosses northern and western Alaska, including Nome and Utqiagvik (Barrow), with totality lasting up to about 2 minutes 37 seconds over the Arctic coast; this is a mid-morning eclipse, so warm clothing and a clear northern horizon matter as much as eye protection ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_March_30,_2033), [NASA](https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEpath/SEpath2001/SE2033Mar30Tpath.html)). The next is August 23, 2044, the first total solar eclipse to cross the contiguous US since 2024. The path runs through eastern British Columbia, Alberta, southwestern Saskatchewan, northern Nunavut, and the Northwest Territories in Canada, then northeastern Montana, western North Dakota, and the extreme northwest corner of South Dakota, with totality lasting up to about 2 minutes 4 seconds along a fairly narrow, 453-kilometer-wide path that misses most major cities ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_August_23,_2044), [NASA](https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEpath/SEpath2001/SE2044Aug23Tpath.html)). The big one is August 12, 2045, the long-awaited successor to 2017's coast-to-coast eclipse. The path of totality crosses the US from northern California through Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia to Florida, then on to the Bahamas and Caribbean, with totality reaching more than 6 minutes near Camden, Alabama, among the longest of the 21st century ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_August_12,_2045), [NASA](https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEpath/SEpath2001/SE2045Aug12Tpath.html)). ## How to Plan Eclipse Travel Whichever of these three you build a trip around, lodging inside the actual path of totality, not just nearby, is the single most important decision, since a few miles outside the path means missing totality entirely. Hotel demand around a total solar eclipse spikes hard and early: during the 2017 eclipse, hotels along the path saw a 244 percent jump in revenue per available room the day before the eclipse and 95 percent occupancy, and in the small market of Hopkinsville, Kentucky, revenue per room rose 1,644 percent; ahead of the 2024 eclipse, hotel searches jumped 306 percent and some chains reported booking rates up 800 percent year over year ([Hotel Dive](https://www.hoteldive.com/news/hotel-bookings-total-solar-eclipse/710541/)). Book lodging as soon as a path is finalized rather than waiting, and consider camping or an RV site as a backup, since campgrounds inside a rural path (like the 2044 route through Montana and North Dakota) often stay available longer than hotel rooms. Build in flexibility for weather. Because cloud cover on eclipse day can ruin a fixed viewing spot, dedicated eclipse-chasing sites publish cloud-cover climatology for points along each path, and experienced chasers use that data to scout two or three potential locations in different microclimates rather than committing to a single town months in advance ([Eclipsophile](https://eclipsophile.com/tse2026/)). Pair the trip with our [dark sky places](/places) directory to find a certified dark-sky park or preserve near the path for a stargazing night before or after the eclipse itself, and check the [moon phase](/moon) for the days around your trip so a bright Moon does not wash out that bonus night sky. ## A Look Back: The April 8, 2024 Total Solar Eclipse The most recent total solar eclipse to cross North America happened on April 8, 2024, when the Moon's shadow raced from the Pacific coast of Mexico through 15 US states from Texas to Maine, then into Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland in Canada ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_April_8,_2024)). Totality lasted up to 4 minutes 28 seconds near Nazas, Durango, Mexico, making it noticeably longer than either of the two landmark eclipses still ahead in 2033 or 2044 ([NASA](https://science.nasa.gov/eclipses/future-eclipses/eclipse-2024/)). If you missed it, the next chance at totality anywhere in the US or Canada is Alaska in 2033, and the next chance in the Lower 48 or southern Canada is 2044. ## Lunar Eclipses Worth Watching Through 2028 Not every lunar eclipse is worth planning a night around. The penumbral eclipses of February 20, 2027 and July 6, 2028 involve only Earth's faint outer shadow and produce little to no visible dimming, so they are easy to skip ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_2027_lunar_eclipse), [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_2028_lunar_eclipse)). The shallow partial eclipse on January 12, 2028 is fully visible coast to coast across the US and Canada, though only a small bite of the Moon dips into shadow, so binoculars help more than the naked eye ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_2028_lunar_eclipse)). The one worth marking on a calendar is a rare New Year's Eve total lunar eclipse on December 31, 2028, though it favors the western half of the continent: Alaska, western Canada, and the western US will see it low in the sky as the Moon sets before dawn, while anyone east of the Rockies will miss it entirely because the Moon sets before the eclipse begins ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_2028_lunar_eclipse)). Between now and then, our [meteor shower calendar](/meteor-showers) and [northern lights](/northern-lights) guide cover the other reasons to keep looking up on a clear night. ## Quick Answers **When is the next total solar eclipse in the United States?** March 30, 2033, but totality only reaches northern and western Alaska; the Lower 48 has to wait for August 23, 2044 (Montana and North Dakota) or the bigger August 12, 2045 path from California to Florida ([NASA](https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEpath/SEpath2001/SE2033Mar30Tpath.html)). **When is the next total solar eclipse visible from Canada?** Partial phases already reach Canada in several eclipses through 2028, but the next true totality in Canada is August 23, 2044, when the path crosses British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Nunavut, and the Northwest Territories ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_August_23,_2044)). **What's the difference between total, partial, and annular solar eclipses?** Total means the Moon fully covers the Sun inside a narrow path; annular means the Moon looks too small to fully cover the Sun, leaving a ring of light; partial means only part of the Sun is covered, which is what most locations outside the main path see ([NASA](https://science.nasa.gov/eclipses/faq/)). **Do I need special glasses, and are sunglasses enough?** You need eclipse glasses or handheld viewers certified to the ISO 12312-2:2015 standard for every moment of a partial or annular eclipse, and for the partial phases before and after totality; ordinary sunglasses are never dark enough or safe ([AAS](https://eclipse.aas.org/eye-safety/iso12312-2)). **How long does totality last?** It varies by eclipse and location: up to 4 minutes 28 seconds on April 8, 2024, up to 2 minutes 37 seconds in Alaska on March 30, 2033, up to 2 minutes 4 seconds in 2044, and more than 6 minutes near Camden, Alabama on August 12, 2045 ([NASA](https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEpath/SEpath2001/SE2045Aug12Tpath.html)). **Is there anything worth traveling for before 2044?** Not another totality in the US or Canada. The closest thing is a shallow partial bite visible from far eastern Maine and Canada's Atlantic Provinces on August 2, 2027, or a trip north to Alaska for the March 30, 2033 totality ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_August_2,_2027)).",
        "hero_image": "/images/eclipses.webp",
        "category": "events",
        "published_at": "2026-09-23T00:00:00.000Z",
        "updated_at": "2026-09-23T00:00:00.000Z",
        "sources_json": "[{\"title\":\"Solar eclipse of April 8, 2024 - Wikipedia\",\"url\":\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_April_8,_2024\"},{\"title\":\"2024 Total Eclipse - NASA Science\",\"url\":\"https://science.nasa.gov/eclipses/future-eclipses/eclipse-2024/\"},{\"title\":\"Path of the Annular Solar Eclipse of 2026 Feb 17 - NASA\",\"url\":\"https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEpath/SEpath2001/SE2026Feb17Apath.html\"},{\"title\":\"March 2026 Total Lunar Eclipse: Your Questions Answered - NASA Science\",\"url\":\"https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/moon/march-2026-total-lunar-eclipse-your-questions-answered/\"},{\"title\":\"Total lunar eclipse March 2-3: Last one for 3 years! - EarthSky\",\"url\":\"https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/total-lunar-eclipse-march-2-3-2026/\"},{\"title\":\"Total Solar Eclipse on August 12, 2026 - NASA Science\",\"url\":\"https://science.nasa.gov/eclipses/future-eclipses/total-solar-eclipse-on-august-12-2026/\"},{\"title\":\"Where is the partial lunar eclipse tonight Aug. 27-28 visible from? - Space.com\",\"url\":\"https://www.space.com/stargazing/lunar-eclipses/where-will-the-partial-lunar-eclipse-on-aug-27-2026-be-visible-from\"},{\"title\":\"Solar eclipse of February 6, 2027 - Wikipedia\",\"url\":\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_February_6,_2027\"},{\"title\":\"February 2027 lunar eclipse - Wikipedia\",\"url\":\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_2027_lunar_eclipse\"},{\"title\":\"Solar eclipse of August 2, 2027 - Wikipedia\",\"url\":\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_August_2,_2027\"},{\"title\":\"January 2028 lunar eclipse - Wikipedia\",\"url\":\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_2028_lunar_eclipse\"},{\"title\":\"Solar eclipse of January 26, 2028 - Wikipedia\",\"url\":\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_January_26,_2028\"},{\"title\":\"July 2028 lunar eclipse - Wikipedia\",\"url\":\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_2028_lunar_eclipse\"},{\"title\":\"Solar eclipse of July 22, 2028 - Wikipedia\",\"url\":\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_July_22,_2028\"},{\"title\":\"December 2028 lunar eclipse - Wikipedia\",\"url\":\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_2028_lunar_eclipse\"},{\"title\":\"Solar eclipse of March 30, 2033 - Wikipedia\",\"url\":\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_March_30,_2033\"},{\"title\":\"Path of the Total Solar Eclipse of 2033 Mar 30 - NASA\",\"url\":\"https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEpath/SEpath2001/SE2033Mar30Tpath.html\"},{\"title\":\"Solar eclipse of August 23, 2044 - Wikipedia\",\"url\":\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_August_23,_2044\"},{\"title\":\"Path of the Total Solar Eclipse of 2044 Aug 23 - NASA\",\"url\":\"https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEpath/SEpath2001/SE2044Aug23Tpath.html\"},{\"title\":\"Solar eclipse of August 12, 2045 - Wikipedia\",\"url\":\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_August_12,_2045\"},{\"title\":\"Path of the Total Solar Eclipse of 2045 Aug 12 - NASA\",\"url\":\"https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEpath/SEpath2001/SE2045Aug12Tpath.html\"},{\"title\":\"Eclipses Frequently Asked Questions - NASA Science\",\"url\":\"https://science.nasa.gov/eclipses/faq/\"},{\"title\":\"About Eclipses - NASA Solar System Exploration\",\"url\":\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/eclipses/overview\"},{\"title\":\"Your Guide to Lunar Eclipses - Canadian Space Agency\",\"url\":\"https://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/astronomy/eclipses/lunar-eclipses.asp\"},{\"title\":\"Eclipse Viewing Safety - NASA Science\",\"url\":\"https://science.nasa.gov/eclipses/safety/\"},{\"title\":\"About the ISO 12312-2 Standard for Solar Viewers - AAS Solar Eclipse Across America\",\"url\":\"https://eclipse.aas.org/eye-safety/iso12312-2\"},{\"title\":\"Suppliers of Safe Solar Viewers and Filters - AAS Solar Eclipse Across America\",\"url\":\"https://eclipse.aas.org/eye-safety/viewers-filters\"},{\"title\":\"Hotel bookings out of this world ahead of total solar eclipse - Hotel Dive\",\"url\":\"https://www.hoteldive.com/news/hotel-bookings-total-solar-eclipse/710541/\"},{\"title\":\"Total Solar Eclipse 2026 August 12 - Eclipsophile\",\"url\":\"https://eclipsophile.com/tse2026/\"}]",
        "hero_alt": "Map-style illustration of the Moon's shadow path crossing North America during a total solar eclipse"
      },
      {
        "slug": "dark-sky-parks",
        "title": "Dark Sky Parks in the US and Canada: Full Guide",
        "description": "Find the best dark sky parks across the US and Canada by region, plus the Bortle scale and how DarkSky International and RASC certify dark skies.",
        "body_md": "The best dark sky parks in the US and Canada are certified public lands, from Utah's Natural Bridges National Monument to Quebec's Mont-Mégantic, dark enough to see the unaided Milky Way and often the zodiacal light. Certification comes mainly from two bodies, [DarkSky International](https://darksky.org/what-we-do/international-dark-sky-places/dark-sky-place-types/) and Canada's [Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC)](https://rasc.ca/dark-sky-site-designations), and the darkest sites sit at Bortle Class 1 or 2 on the scale astronomers use to rate night sky quality. Below is a region-by-region shortlist of standout parks, what the Bortle scale and certification tiers mean, and how to plan a visit around the moon; the full, searchable roster lives on our [places directory](/places). ## What Makes a Sky \"Dark\"? The Bortle Scale Explained Amateur astronomers rate night sky darkness using the Bortle Dark-Sky Scale, published in *Sky & Telescope* magazine in February 2001 as a nine-level system for describing what you can actually see with the naked eye, from the core of a bright city to the darkest wilderness left on Earth, according to [Sky & Telescope](https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-resources/light-pollution-and-astronomy-the-bortle-dark-sky-scale/). | Class | Sky quality | What you can see |\n|---|---|---|\n| 1 | Excellent dark-sky site | The Milky Way and zodiacal light cast visible shadows; the galaxy M33 is visible to the naked eye |\n| 2 | Truly dark | M33 is easy to see; the Milky Way shows rich, complex structure |\n| 3 | Rural | Some light pollution on the horizon; Milky Way still shows complex structure |\n| 4 | Rural/suburban transition | Light-pollution domes are obvious on the horizon; Milky Way lacks fine detail |\n| 5 | Suburban | Milky Way is very weak to invisible near the horizon |\n| 6 to 7 | Bright suburban to urban transition | Milky Way visible only near the zenith, if at all |\n| 8 to 9 | City to inner-city | Sky glows gray or white; only the Moon, planets, and brightest stars stand out | Most certified [dark sky parks](/places) measure Class 1 or 2 away from campground lighting; Colorado's [Gunnison Gorge National Conservation Area](https://darksky.org/places/gunnison-gorge-national-conservation-area/), for comparison, reports an average sky quality reading of 21.38 magnitudes per square arc-second, solidly in that range. For the basics behind what you're seeing, see our guides to [stargazing for beginners](/stargazing-for-beginners) and [constellations](/constellations). ## Dark Sky Certifications: DarkSky International vs. RASC Two organizations certify dark sky places in North America, and their categories are not interchangeable. **DarkSky International** (formerly the International Dark-Sky Association) runs the certification most US parks and Canadian national parks carry. Its main categories are [defined as](https://darksky.org/what-we-do/international-dark-sky-places/dark-sky-place-types/): - **Dark Sky Park:** publicly or privately owned land protected for its night sky, where the landowner guarantees permanent public access.\n- **Dark Sky Sanctuary:** the most remote and fragile category, land so isolated that few threats to its darkness exist.\n- **Dark Sky Reserve:** a large protected core zone surrounded by a populated periphery, run by a partnership of multiple land managers under shared lighting rules.\n- **Dark Sky Community:** an entire town or municipality that enforces a dark-sky-friendly outdoor lighting ordinance.\n- **Urban Night Sky Place:** a park or open space inside a city that still delivers a real nighttime experience despite nearby artificial light. DarkSky International had certified 250 International Dark Sky Places worldwide as of November 3, 2025, protecting more than 196,000 square kilometers of night sky, per [DarkSky International](https://darksky.org/news/250-international-dark-sky-places-2/). It also certifies individual hotels and campgrounds as [DarkSky Approved Lodging](https://darksky.org/news/au-diable-vert-canadas-first-darksky-approved-lodging/), a growing category on both sides of the border. **RASC**, Canada's own astronomical society, runs a parallel, Canada-only program that predates and still coexists with DarkSky International certification at some sites. Per [RASC](https://rasc.ca/dark-sky-site-designations), its three categories are: - **Dark-Sky Preserve (DSP):** the strictest tier, where no artificial lighting is visible at all and active outreach promotes reducing light pollution.\n- **Urban Star Park (USP):** a site inside or near a city where lighting is tightly controlled but some outside sky glow may still be visible.\n- **Nocturnal Preserve (NP):** focused on protecting nighttime wildlife habitat rather than astronomy access. Some Canadian parks, like Mont-Mégantic and Mont-Tremblant, carry both designations; others, mostly RASC's older Dark-Sky Preserves, carry only the Canadian one. Our [places directory](/places) lists which certification applies to every site. ## Standout Dark Sky Parks by Region Utah alone has more certified dark sky places than anywhere else on Earth, according to the [Utah Office of Tourism](https://www.visitutah.com/places-to-go/dark-sky-parks), and the Southwest anchors this list. Every park below links to its certification record; the complete, filterable roster is on [/places](/places). ### Southwest and Rocky Mountains | Park | State | Type | Why go | Best season |\n|---|---|---|---|---|\n| [Grand Canyon National Park](https://darksky.org/places/grand-canyon-national-park-dark-sky-park/) | AZ | Dark Sky Park | Rim programs put you at Bortle 1 to 2 skies over the canyon; annual star parties draw amateur astronomers with telescopes | Spring and fall (mild rim temperatures) |\n| [Natural Bridges National Monument](https://home.nps.gov/nabr/learn/news/news040507.htm) | UT | Dark Sky Park | The world's first certified International Dark Sky Park (2007), with sandstone bridges silhouetted against the Milky Way | Spring through fall |\n| [Bryce Canyon National Park](https://darksky.org/places/bryce-canyon-national-park-dark-sky-park/) | UT | Dark Sky Park | Ranger-led night sky programs among the hoodoos; one of the most-searched stargazing destinations in the Southwest | Summer (astronomy festival season) |\n| [Arches National Park](https://darksky.org/places/arches-national-park-dark-sky-park/) & [Canyonlands National Park](https://darksky.org/places/canyonlands-national-park-dark-sky-park/) | UT | Dark Sky Parks | Both flank Moab, letting one trip cover two certified parks and thousands of natural sandstone arches | Fall and spring (cooler desert nights) |\n| [Zion National Park](https://darksky.org/places/zion-national-park-dark-sky-park/) | UT | Dark Sky Park | Towering sandstone cliffs frame the sky above one of the most visited parks in the certified network | Fall through spring |\n| [Great Basin National Park](https://darksky.org/places/great-basin-national-park-dark-sky-park/) | NV | Dark Sky Park | High-desert isolation between two mountain ranges keeps light pollution near zero | Summer (Great Basin Astronomy Festival) |\n| [Chaco Culture National Historical Park](https://darksky.org/places/chaco-culture-national-historic-park-dark-sky-park/) | NM | Dark Sky Park | Ancestral Puebloan ruins under skies protected by strict lighting rules since 1907 | Spring and fall |\n| [Rainbow Bridge National Monument](https://darksky.org/places/rainbow-bridge-national-monument-dark-sky-sanctuary/) | AZ | Dark Sky Sanctuary | Boat- or hike-access-only site near Lake Powell, among the most remote certifications in the US | Late spring through early fall |\n| [Mesa Verde National Park](https://darksky.org/places/mesa-verde-national-park-dark-sky-park/) | CO | Dark Sky Park | Cliff-dwelling ruins paired with remote, dry, high-elevation skies | Spring through fall |\n| [Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve](https://darksky.org/places/great-sand-dunes-national-park-dark-sky-park/) | CO | Dark Sky Park | North America's tallest dunes double as an open, unobstructed viewing platform | Fall through spring (cooler dune-hiking temps) |\n| [Big Bend National Park](https://darksky.org/places/big-bend-national-park-dark-sky-park/) | TX | Dark Sky Park | Texas's darkest national park, wrapped by the larger [Greater Big Bend International Dark Sky Reserve](https://darksky.org/places/greater-big-bend-international-dark-sky-reserve/) and McDonald Observatory country | Fall through spring |\n| [Enchanted Rock State Natural Area](https://darksky.org/places/enchanted-rock-state-natural-area-dark-sky-park/) | TX | Dark Sky Park | Hill Country granite dome with star parties held since 2011, a short drive from Austin | Fall through spring | ### Pacific and Northwest | Park | State | Type | Why go | Best season |\n|---|---|---|---|---|\n| [Death Valley National Park](https://darksky.org/places/death-valley-national-park-dark-sky-park/) | CA | Dark Sky Park | The largest US national park outside Alaska, with some of the driest, clearest air in the country | Fall through spring (avoid summer heat) |\n| [Joshua Tree National Park](https://darksky.org/places/joshua-tree-national-park-dark-sky-park/) | CA | Dark Sky Park | Two desert ecosystems meet under skies close enough to Los Angeles to surprise first-time visitors | Fall through spring |\n| [Central Idaho Dark Sky Reserve](https://darksky.org/places/central-idaho-dark-sky-reserve/) | ID | Dark Sky Reserve | A 3,668-square-kilometer reserve around Sun Valley, one of the largest in the US, wrapping the volcanic landscape of [Craters of the Moon](https://darksky.org/places/craters-of-the-moon-national-monument-dark-sky-park/) | Summer | ### Great Lakes, Midwest, and Plains | Park | State | Type | Why go | Best season |\n|---|---|---|---|---|\n| [Headlands](https://darksky.org/places/headlands-dark-sky-park/) | MI | Dark Sky Park | Lake Michigan shoreline park near Mackinaw City with regular star parties and astrophotography nights | Summer and fall |\n| [Keweenaw Dark Sky Park](https://darksky.org/places/keweenaw-michigan-dark-sky-park/) | MI | Dark Sky Park | Upper Peninsula site far enough north to occasionally catch the aurora as a bonus; see our [northern lights guide](/northern-lights) | Fall through spring |\n| [Voyageurs National Park](https://darksky.org/places/voyageurs-national-park-dark-sky-park/) | MN | Dark Sky Park | Boundary-waters lake country, next to the paddle-in [Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness Sanctuary](https://darksky.org/places/boundary-waters-canoe-area-dark-sky-sanctuary/), with aurora, meteor showers, and Milky Way nights all possible in one trip | Summer through fall |\n| [Badlands National Park](https://darksky.org/places/badlands-national-park/) | SD | Dark Sky Park | Eroded prairie buttes host an annual Astronomy Festival each July | Summer |\n| [Merritt Reservoir State Recreation Area](https://darksky.org/places/merritt-reservoir-dark-sky-park/) | NE | Dark Sky Park | Sandhills reservoir that hosts the long-running Nebraska Star Party | Summer | ### Appalachians and the East | Park | State | Type | Why go | Best season |\n|---|---|---|---|---|\n| [Cherry Springs State Park](https://darksky.org/places/cherry-springs-state-park-dark-sky-park/) | PA | Dark Sky Park | The East Coast's benchmark dark sky site, open year-round with 60 to 85 nights of ideal viewing conditions annually | Spring through fall |\n| [Mammoth Cave National Park](https://darksky.org/places/mammoth-cave-national-park-dark-sky-park/) | KY | Dark Sky Park | The world's longest known cave system also protects dark skies above ground | Spring through fall |\n| [Big Cypress National Preserve](https://darksky.org/places/big-cypress-dark-sky-park/) | FL | Dark Sky Park | A rare certified site in the humid Southeast, about 72 km west of Miami | Winter and early spring (drier air, fewer bugs) | ### Canada by Province | Park | Province | Type | Why go | Best season |\n|---|---|---|---|---|\n| [Mont-Mégantic International Dark Sky Reserve](https://darksky.org/places/mont-megantic-dark-sky-reserve/) | QC | Reserve (RASC and DarkSky International) | The world's first International Dark Sky Reserve (2007), anchored by the ASTROLab observatory | Fall through spring |\n| [Parc national du Mont-Tremblant](https://darksky.org/news/parc-national-du-mont-tremblant-becomes-canadas-sixth-certified-international-dark-sky-place/) | QC | Dark Sky Park | Quebec's largest provincial park, nearly 1,500 square kilometers in the Laurentians | Summer through fall |\n| [Torrance Barrens Conservation Reserve](https://rasc.ca/lpa/dark-sky-sites) | ON | Dark-Sky Preserve (RASC) | Canada's first RASC Dark-Sky Preserve (1999), a short walk from a Muskoka roadside lot | Summer through fall |\n| [Jasper National Park](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jasper_National_Park) | AB | Dark-Sky Preserve (RASC) | One of the largest Dark-Sky Preserves in the world at designation, home to the annual Jasper Dark Sky Festival every October | Fall (festival season) |\n| [Wood Buffalo National Park](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_Buffalo_National_Park) | AB/NT | Dark-Sky Preserve (RASC) | The world's largest Dark-Sky Preserve, spanning the Alberta-Northwest Territories border | Late summer (Sky Festival each August) |\n| [Waterton Lakes National Park](https://darksky.org/locations/canada/) | AB | Dark Sky Park (DarkSky International) | Certified jointly with Montana's Glacier as the first trans-boundary International Dark Sky Park | Summer |\n| [Grasslands National Park](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grasslands_National_Park) | SK | Dark-Sky Preserve (RASC) | Native prairie grassland holding some of the least light-polluted skies left in Canada | Summer and fall |\n| [Kejimkujik National Park and National Historic Site](https://rasc.ca/lpa/dark-sky-sites) | NS | Dark-Sky Preserve (RASC) | Nova Scotia's only national park, mixing dark skies with Mi'kmaq petroglyph sites | Summer and fall |\n| [Terra Nova National Park](https://www.canada.ca/en/parks-canada/news/2018/03/terra-nova-national-park-officially-designated-as-a-dark-sky-preserve.html) | NL | Dark-Sky Preserve (RASC) | A boreal fjord park on Bonavista Bay, Newfoundland's easternmost Dark-Sky Preserve | Summer and fall | This is a curated shortlist. The [places directory](/places) covers every certified park, sanctuary, reserve, community, and urban night sky site in both countries, with certification year, nearest town, and managing agency for each. ## How to Pick a Night: Moon Phase and Weather A dark sky park under a full moon can look closer to Bortle Class 4 or 5 than Class 1, since moonlight washes out the same faint detail as light pollution. The Milky Way's core is seasonal too: it climbs highest in the evening from roughly late spring through late summer in the Northern Hemisphere, then sits low or below the horizon by late fall, according to [Space.com](https://www.space.com/stargazing/this-is-your-best-chance-to-spot-the-milky-ways-core-in-may). Plan around moon phase first, then weather. Check [moon phase and moonrise times](/moon) for any US or Canadian city before booking, and aim for a few nights around a new moon. If a meteor shower or the aurora lines up with your trip, our [events calendar](/events) and [meteor shower guide](/meteor-showers) track peak dates against moonlight. ## Camping and Logistics Most parks above are US national or state parks, or Canadian national and provincial parks, with established campgrounds, so the darkest skies and the easiest overnight stay are usually the same place. Reserve sites well ahead of a new moon weekend at popular parks like Bryce Canyon, Arches, and Big Bend, since photographers plan around the same lunar calendar. Parks like [Great Basin](https://darksky.org/places/great-basin-national-park-dark-sky-park/) and [Badlands](https://darksky.org/places/badlands-national-park/) also run seasonal astronomy festivals worth timing a visit around. Away from camp lighting, a red or amber flashlight, a warm layer even in summer deserts, and an offline star chart matter more than a telescope; see our [stargazing for beginners guide](/stargazing-for-beginners) for what to pack. These skies stay dark largely because of outdoor lighting law: see [dark sky laws by state](/laws) for how nearby towns limit their glow, and [dark-sky-friendly lighting](/dark-sky-lighting) for what a compliant fixture looks like. ## Quick Answers **What's the difference between a Dark Sky Park, Reserve, and Sanctuary?**\nA Dark Sky Park is public or private land with guaranteed public access; a Sanctuary is an especially remote, fragile site with limited public access; a Reserve is a large protected core zone surrounded by a populated buffer managed under shared lighting rules, according to [DarkSky International](https://darksky.org/what-we-do/international-dark-sky-places/dark-sky-place-types/). **How many International Dark Sky Places are there?**\nDarkSky International had certified 250 International Dark Sky Places worldwide as of November 3, 2025, per [DarkSky International](https://darksky.org/news/250-international-dark-sky-places-2/); dozens more are certified only by RASC in Canada and are not counted in that total. **What state has the most dark sky parks?**\nUtah has more certified International Dark Sky Places than anywhere else on Earth, including Zion, Bryce Canyon, Arches, Canyonlands, and Capitol Reef, according to the [Utah Office of Tourism](https://www.visitutah.com/places-to-go/dark-sky-parks). **Can you camp in a dark sky park?**\nYes. Nearly every park listed above, from [Big Bend](https://darksky.org/places/big-bend-national-park-dark-sky-park/) to [Voyageurs](https://darksky.org/places/voyageurs-national-park-dark-sky-park/), has established campgrounds run by the National Park Service, a state parks agency, or Parks Canada. **What's the best time of year to visit a dark sky park?**\nMoon phase matters more than season: pick a night within a few days of a new moon and check local weather, since even Bortle Class 1 skies vanish behind clouds or a bright moon. Desert parks like Death Valley are also more comfortable fall through spring than summer, while northern parks like Voyageurs and Jasper peak in summer for access. **Are dark sky parks free to visit?**\nMost charge the standard entrance fee for any US national or state park, or Canadian national park; a few remote sanctuaries and reserves, like New Mexico's Cosmic Campground, charge nothing. Check each park's official page, linked above, before you go.",
        "hero_image": "/images/dark-sky-parks.webp",
        "category": "places",
        "published_at": "2026-09-23T00:00:00.000Z",
        "updated_at": "2026-09-23T00:00:00.000Z",
        "sources_json": "[{\"title\":\"Gauging Light Pollution: The Bortle Dark-Sky Scale\",\"url\":\"https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-resources/light-pollution-and-astronomy-the-bortle-dark-sky-scale/\"},{\"title\":\"Dark Sky Place types\",\"url\":\"https://darksky.org/what-we-do/international-dark-sky-places/dark-sky-place-types/\"},{\"title\":\"250 International Dark Sky Places\",\"url\":\"https://darksky.org/news/250-international-dark-sky-places-2/\"},{\"title\":\"Dark-Sky Site Designations\",\"url\":\"https://rasc.ca/dark-sky-site-designations\"},{\"title\":\"Natural Bridges named the world's first international dark-sky park (NPS)\",\"url\":\"https://home.nps.gov/nabr/learn/news/news040507.htm\"},{\"title\":\"Mont-Mégantic Dark Sky Reserve\",\"url\":\"https://darksky.org/places/mont-megantic-dark-sky-reserve/\"},{\"title\":\"Wood Buffalo National Park\",\"url\":\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_Buffalo_National_Park\"},{\"title\":\"Dark Sky Parks & Places, Utah Has the Most on Earth\",\"url\":\"https://www.visitutah.com/places-to-go/dark-sky-parks\"},{\"title\":\"Grand Canyon National Park Dark Sky Park\",\"url\":\"https://darksky.org/places/grand-canyon-national-park-dark-sky-park/\"},{\"title\":\"Chaco Culture National Historic Park Dark Sky Park\",\"url\":\"https://darksky.org/places/chaco-culture-national-historic-park-dark-sky-park/\"},{\"title\":\"Rainbow Bridge National Monument Dark Sky Sanctuary\",\"url\":\"https://darksky.org/places/rainbow-bridge-national-monument-dark-sky-sanctuary/\"},{\"title\":\"Great Basin National Park Dark Sky Park\",\"url\":\"https://darksky.org/places/great-basin-national-park-dark-sky-park/\"},{\"title\":\"Zion National Park Dark Sky Park\",\"url\":\"https://darksky.org/places/zion-national-park-dark-sky-park/\"},{\"title\":\"Bryce Canyon National Park Dark Sky Park\",\"url\":\"https://darksky.org/places/bryce-canyon-national-park-dark-sky-park/\"},{\"title\":\"Arches National Park Dark Sky Park\",\"url\":\"https://darksky.org/places/arches-national-park-dark-sky-park/\"},{\"title\":\"Canyonlands National Park Dark Sky Park\",\"url\":\"https://darksky.org/places/canyonlands-national-park-dark-sky-park/\"},{\"title\":\"Big Bend National Park Dark Sky Park\",\"url\":\"https://darksky.org/places/big-bend-national-park-dark-sky-park/\"},{\"title\":\"Greater Big Bend International Dark Sky Reserve\",\"url\":\"https://darksky.org/places/greater-big-bend-international-dark-sky-reserve/\"},{\"title\":\"Enchanted Rock State Natural Area Dark Sky Park\",\"url\":\"https://darksky.org/places/enchanted-rock-state-natural-area-dark-sky-park/\"},{\"title\":\"Mesa Verde National Park Dark Sky Park\",\"url\":\"https://darksky.org/places/mesa-verde-national-park-dark-sky-park/\"},{\"title\":\"Great Sand Dunes National Park Dark Sky Park\",\"url\":\"https://darksky.org/places/great-sand-dunes-national-park-dark-sky-park/\"},{\"title\":\"Death Valley National Park Dark Sky Park\",\"url\":\"https://darksky.org/places/death-valley-national-park-dark-sky-park/\"},{\"title\":\"Joshua Tree National Park Dark Sky Park\",\"url\":\"https://darksky.org/places/joshua-tree-national-park-dark-sky-park/\"},{\"title\":\"Craters of the Moon National Monument Dark Sky Park\",\"url\":\"https://darksky.org/places/craters-of-the-moon-national-monument-dark-sky-park/\"},{\"title\":\"Central Idaho Dark Sky Reserve\",\"url\":\"https://darksky.org/places/central-idaho-dark-sky-reserve/\"},{\"title\":\"Headlands Dark Sky Park\",\"url\":\"https://darksky.org/places/headlands-dark-sky-park/\"},{\"title\":\"Keweenaw Michigan Dark Sky Park\",\"url\":\"https://darksky.org/places/keweenaw-michigan-dark-sky-park/\"},{\"title\":\"Voyageurs National Park Dark Sky Park\",\"url\":\"https://darksky.org/places/voyageurs-national-park-dark-sky-park/\"},{\"title\":\"Boundary Waters Canoe Area Dark Sky Sanctuary\",\"url\":\"https://darksky.org/places/boundary-waters-canoe-area-dark-sky-sanctuary/\"},{\"title\":\"Badlands National Park\",\"url\":\"https://darksky.org/places/badlands-national-park/\"},{\"title\":\"Merritt Reservoir Dark Sky Park\",\"url\":\"https://darksky.org/places/merritt-reservoir-dark-sky-park/\"},{\"title\":\"Cherry Springs State Park Dark Sky Park\",\"url\":\"https://darksky.org/places/cherry-springs-state-park-dark-sky-park/\"},{\"title\":\"Mammoth Cave National Park Dark Sky Park\",\"url\":\"https://darksky.org/places/mammoth-cave-national-park-dark-sky-park/\"},{\"title\":\"Big Cypress Dark Sky Park\",\"url\":\"https://darksky.org/places/big-cypress-dark-sky-park/\"},{\"title\":\"Torrance Barrens Conservation Reserve (RASC)\",\"url\":\"https://rasc.ca/lpa/dark-sky-sites\"},{\"title\":\"Jasper National Park (Wikipedia)\",\"url\":\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jasper_National_Park\"},{\"title\":\"Waterton Lakes National Park (DarkSky International)\",\"url\":\"https://darksky.org/locations/canada/\"},{\"title\":\"Grasslands National Park (Wikipedia)\",\"url\":\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grasslands_National_Park\"},{\"title\":\"Kejimkujik National Park and National Historic Site (RASC)\",\"url\":\"https://rasc.ca/lpa/dark-sky-sites\"},{\"title\":\"Terra Nova National Park officially designated as a Dark Sky Preserve\",\"url\":\"https://www.canada.ca/en/parks-canada/news/2018/03/terra-nova-national-park-officially-designated-as-a-dark-sky-preserve.html\"},{\"title\":\"Parc national du Mont-Tremblant becomes Canada's sixth certified International Dark Sky Place\",\"url\":\"https://darksky.org/news/parc-national-du-mont-tremblant-becomes-canadas-sixth-certified-international-dark-sky-place/\"},{\"title\":\"Au Diable Vert, Canada's first DarkSky Approved Lodging\",\"url\":\"https://darksky.org/news/au-diable-vert-canadas-first-darksky-approved-lodging/\"},{\"title\":\"Gunnison Gorge National Conservation Area\",\"url\":\"https://darksky.org/places/gunnison-gorge-national-conservation-area/\"},{\"title\":\"This is your best chance to spot the Milky Way's core (Space.com)\",\"url\":\"https://www.space.com/stargazing/this-is-your-best-chance-to-spot-the-milky-ways-core-in-may\"}]",
        "hero_alt": "The Milky Way arching over red-rock formations at a certified dark sky park in the American Southwest"
      },
      {
        "slug": "dark-sky-lighting",
        "title": "Dark-Sky Friendly Outdoor Lighting: A Homeowner's Guide",
        "description": "DarkSky International's five lighting principles, what \"full cutoff\" and color temperature mean, and how to pick fixtures that cut glare, save energy, and meet local dark sky laws.",
        "body_md": "Dark-sky friendly outdoor lighting means fixtures that are fully shielded so the bulb itself is never visible from above, warm-colored (3000 Kelvin or lower, sometimes 2200K amber near observatories or sea turtle beaches), and controlled by motion sensors or timers so they only run when someone actually needs them. [DarkSky International](https://darksky.org/resources/guides-and-how-tos/lighting-principles/) sets the criteria the whole industry now builds toward, and its [DarkSky Approved](https://darksky.org/what-we-do/darksky-approved/darksky-approved-luminaires-program/) certification (long known as the Fixture Seal of Approval) tells shoppers which products actually meet them. Getting your own porch light, floodlight, or driveway lamp right cuts glare for your neighbors, protects nocturnal wildlife, restores your view of the stars, and, according to the [US Department of Energy](https://www.energy.gov/femp/purchasing-energy-efficient-exterior-lighting), lowers your electric bill in the process. ## The five principles of good outdoor lighting Every dark-sky rule, ordinance, and product certification traces back to the same five ideas, published by [DarkSky International](https://darksky.org/resources/guides-and-how-tos/lighting-principles/) as the Five Principles for Responsible Outdoor Lighting: 1. **Useful.** Only install a light if there is a real, specific need for it. A fixture illuminating an empty side yard all night is not useful, it is waste.\n2. **Targeted.** Aim and shield the light so it falls only where it is needed, not onto the sky, a neighbor's bedroom window, or the street.\n3. **Low level.** Use the minimum brightness the task requires. More lumens do not mean more safety, and over-lit surfaces actually make it harder for eyes to adjust to the dark areas around them.\n4. **Controlled.** Use light only when it is needed, through timers, motion detectors, or dimmers, rather than leaving it on dusk to dawn by default.\n5. **Warm-colored.** Choose warmer, longer-wavelength light and avoid short-wavelength blue-violet light wherever possible, since blue light scatters more in the atmosphere and disrupts wildlife more than warm light does. Almost every fixture recommendation in this guide, and almost every state and provincial lighting law covered on our [dark sky laws hub](/laws), is really just one of these five principles written into a spec sheet or a statute. ## Color temperature explained: why 3000K or lower Color temperature is measured in Kelvin (K), and for outdoor lighting the rule of thumb is: lower is better. A \"warm white\" LED at 2700K to 3000K looks like old-fashioned incandescent light, amber-tinted and gentle, while a \"daylight\" LED at 5000K or higher looks bluish-white and scatters far more in the atmosphere, which is what actually creates the orange-gray skyglow you see over a city at night. DarkSky's certification criteria specifically call for minimizing short-wavelength blue-violet content in any [DarkSky Approved](https://darksky.org/what-we-do/darksky-approved/darksky-approved-luminaires-program/) product, and several jurisdictions have turned that into a hard number: - Hawaii requires state agencies to use color temperatures no higher than 4,000 Kelvin on new outdoor fixtures over 3,000 lumens, protecting the observatories on Mauna Kea and Haleakala, in effect since July 1, 2014 ([Haw. Rev. Stat. § 201-8.5](https://law.justia.com/codes/hawaii/2018/title-13/chapter-201/section-201-8.5/)).\n- Maine's 2026 outdoor lighting law caps new or replaced public lighting at 3,000 Kelvin, taking effect October 1, 2026 ([summary](https://www.accessfixtures.com/maine-responsible-outdoor-lighting-act/)).\n- Around Quebec's Mont-Mégantic International Dark Sky Reserve, the municipalities of Sherbrooke, Haut-Saint-François, and Granit go further still, jointly capping outdoor light at 2,200 Kelvin or less, the deep amber end of the scale, to protect the reserve's observatory ([Mont-Mégantic lighting regulations](https://www.cieletoilemontmegantic.org/en/reglementations)).\n- On Florida's sea turtle nesting beaches, the same logic applies for a different reason: hatchlings navigate to the ocean using light cues, and long-wavelength amber or red LEDs (roughly 2200K equivalent) are far less disorienting to them than white or blue-rich light, under the state's Model Lighting Ordinance for Marine Turtle Protection ([Fla. Admin. Code r. 62B-55](https://floridadep.gov/sites/default/files/62B-55_ModelLightingOrdinance_NPR_0.pdf), authorized by the [Marine Turtle Protection Act](https://law.justia.com/codes/florida/2020/title-xxviii/chapter-379/part-ii/section-379-2431/)). | Setting | Recommended color temperature | Why |\n|---|---|---|\n| Typical home, driveway, patio | 2700K to 3000K (warm white) | DarkSky's general guidance; comfortable, low blue content |\n| Near an observatory or dark sky reserve | 2200K or lower (amber) | Minimizes skyglow that washes out faint stars, as required around Mont-Mégantic, QC |\n| Sea turtle nesting beaches (FL and other Gulf/Atlantic coasts) | 2200K amber or red, fully shielded | Reduces hatchling disorientation, per Florida's Model Lighting Ordinance |\n| Municipal and state agency projects, several US states | 3000K to 4000K maximum, by statute | Set in law in Maine (3000K) and Hawaii (4000K, agencies only) | ## Shielding and full cutoff: keeping the light pointed down \"Fully shielded\" and \"full cutoff\" both describe a fixture built so the light source itself, and its light output, cannot be seen from above a certain angle, usually the fixture housing blocks any light from escaping upward or sideways above horizontal. That single design choice does more to cut light pollution than almost any other change a homeowner can make, because it stops light from ever reaching the sky or a neighbor's window in the first place, rather than just dimming it. This is also the oldest and most litigated part of dark-sky law. Arizona passed the first statewide outdoor lighting statute in the country in 1986, requiring most new fixtures to be fully or partially shielded so light points down, specifically to protect the state's observatories ([A.R.S. § 49-1101 et seq.](https://law.justia.com/codes/arizona/2022/title-49/section-49-1101/)). Flagstaff, Arizona became the world's first International Dark Sky Place in 2001, building on a city lighting code that traces back to a 1958 ordinance restricting searchlights near Lowell Observatory ([Flagstaff Dark Sky](https://flagstaff.az.gov/4042/Dark-Sky)), and neighboring Tucson and Pima County run a joint Outdoor Lighting Code limiting shielding, brightness, and color temperature to protect the observatories on Kitt Peak and Mount Lemmon ([Tucson-Pima County code](https://www.tucsonaz.gov/files/sharedassets/public/v/1/city-services/planning-development-services/documents/2012_outdoor_lighting_code_.pdf)). New Mexico's Night Sky Protection Act, in force since 1999, takes the same approach statewide, requiring new outdoor fixtures to be shielded so light is directed downward, with fines of up to $25 per violation for noncompliance ([NMSA 1978 §§ 74-12-1 to 74-12-10](http://darkskynm.org/nspa.pdf)). For a homeowner, \"fully shielded\" is usually printed right on the box or spec sheet, or shown in a fixture's IES photometric rating as \"full cutoff\" or \"BUG rating\" with a zero for uplight. If a fixture's bulb is visible when you look up at it from a few feet away, it is not fully shielded, no matter what the packaging claims. ## Motion sensors and timers DarkSky's fourth principle, controlled, is where the easiest retrofit lives: a light you already own becomes dramatically more dark-sky friendly the moment it is on a motion sensor, photocell, or timer instead of running dusk to dawn. The [Department of Energy](https://www.energy.gov/femp/purchasing-energy-efficient-exterior-lighting) notes that \"advanced controls can save even more energy and operating costs than only improving luminaire efficiency,\" specifically pointing to networked and motion-based controls that let fixtures adapt to real-time activity rather than staying on by default. A basic passive infrared (PIR) motion sensor on a porch or garage light, a photocell that switches a fixture off automatically at sunrise, or a smart plug on a timer all accomplish the same goal: light exists only when a person or a task actually needs it, which is also the fastest way to cut the electric bill on an always-on fixture. ## The DarkSky Approved program (Fixture Seal of Approval) If you would rather not evaluate Kelvin ratings and BUG codes yourself, DarkSky International runs exactly that evaluation for you. The [DarkSky Approved Luminaires program](https://darksky.org/what-we-do/darksky-approved/darksky-approved-luminaires-program/), the modern name for what lighting manufacturers still commonly call the Fixture Seal of Approval (FSA), is an independent, third-party certification that a fixture meets the Five Principles: adequate shielding to eliminate uplight, appropriate (not excessive) output, compatibility with dimming and other controls, and limited short-wavelength blue-violet content. The program covers separate categories for residential fixtures, commercial and pedestrian-scale lighting, and specialized sea-turtle-sensitive luminaires for coastal applications, and DarkSky maintains a searchable database of certified products by category so shoppers can check a specific fixture, or browse for one, before buying. ## What to look for when shopping You do not need to memorize brand names to shop well, just watch for these on the packaging or spec sheet: - **\"Fully shielded\" or \"full cutoff\"** language, or an IES BUG rating with a zero uplight (U) value.\n- **A stated color temperature of 3000K or lower** for general home use, or 2200K amber if you live near an observatory, a dark sky reserve, or a sea turtle nesting beach.\n- **Lumens matched to the task**, not the biggest number on the shelf. DOE's exterior lighting guidance emphasizes matching output to actual need rather than defaulting to maximum brightness.\n- **Motion-sensor or timer compatibility**, ideally built in rather than added later.\n- **The DarkSky Approved seal**, or a quick check against DarkSky's certified-products database, if you want independent confirmation rather than a manufacturer's own marketing claim. ## How dark-sky lighting saves energy The energy case is not marginal. DarkSky International's analysis, citing Department of Energy data, estimates that well under 1 percent of the light generated by outdoor fixtures in the US actually reaches a human eye, the rest scatters into the sky or lands where nobody needed it, and puts current annual losses from that wasted light at roughly $4.5 billion. The same analysis projects that a full shift to efficient LED fixtures paired with smart controls could save at least $15.4 billion a year by 2035, with smart controls like motion sensors and dimming alone accounting for an estimated $3.4 billion of those annual savings ([DarkSky, \"Light Is Energy\"](https://darksky.org/news/light-is-energy-estimating-the-impact-of-light-pollution-on-climate-change/)). At the individual fixture level, the [Department of Energy's federal purchasing guidance](https://www.energy.gov/femp/purchasing-energy-efficient-exterior-lighting) shows a typical wall-mounted outdoor fixture upgrade cutting annual energy cost roughly in half, from about $56 to about $28, over the fixture's lifetime. Shielding, warm color, and controls are not a tradeoff against your electric bill, they are usually the same decision. ## Does your town already require this? Increasingly, yes, and the specifics vary a lot by state and province. Arizona, New Mexico, and Maine now require shielding or color-temperature limits by statute; Hawaii and dozens of cities require it for public projects; Florida mandates turtle-friendly lighting along much of its coastline; and Quebec's Mont-Mégantic region runs some of the strictest rules on the continent. Our [dark sky laws hub](/laws) has the full state-by-state and province-by-province breakdown, and our companion article on [dark sky laws by state](/dark-sky-laws) walks through what a \"good\" ordinance typically requires. Even where there is no state law, plenty of towns, especially those near a certified [dark sky park](/dark-sky-parks), have their own municipal lighting code, so it is worth checking before you buy. ## Checking your own house tonight You can audit your own home in about ten minutes after dark: 1. Walk around the outside of your house and look up at each fixture from a few feet away. If you can see the bulb itself, it is not fully shielded.\n2. Note the color of each light. Anything that reads distinctly blue-white rather than warm/amber is probably above 3000K.\n3. Check which fixtures run all night versus which are on a switch, sensor, or timer. Anything burning dusk to dawn with nobody around is a candidate for a motion sensor or photocell retrofit.\n4. Stand in your own yard and see whether a neighbor's light shines directly into your eyes. That is light trespass, and it usually means their fixture (or yours) needs better shielding, not necessarily less light overall. If you want to go further and see what a genuinely dark sky looks like once local lighting is under control, our [places directory](/places) lists certified dark sky parks and reserves across the US and Canada, and our [learn hub](/learn) explains the Bortle scale used to rate how dark a given sky actually is. ## Quick answers **What is a dark sky light fixture?**\nIt is an outdoor light that is fully shielded so no light escapes upward or sideways above horizontal, uses a warm color temperature (typically 3000K or lower), and is sized and controlled so it only produces the light actually needed for its task. **How do I reduce light pollution at home?**\nSwap or retrofit fixtures to fully shielded housings, lower the color temperature to 3000K or below, put lights on motion sensors or timers instead of leaving them on all night, and only light what genuinely needs it. **Are motion sensor lights dark-sky friendly?**\nYes, motion sensors directly satisfy DarkSky's \"controlled\" principle, and a motion-sensor light on an otherwise shielded, warm-colored fixture is more dark-sky friendly than the same fixture left on continuously. **Do dark sky lights cost more?**\nNot necessarily. Many fully shielded, warm-color LED fixtures cost the same as unshielded ones, and any modest upfront premium is typically offset within a year or two by lower energy use, per Department of Energy exterior lighting cost data. **Can I find DarkSky-approved products?**\nYes. DarkSky International maintains a searchable database of DarkSky Approved (formerly Fixture Seal of Approval) products across residential, commercial, and sea-turtle-sensitive categories on its website. **Does dark sky lighting actually save money?**\nYes. DarkSky International, citing Department of Energy figures, estimates current US losses from wasted outdoor lighting at about $4.5 billion a year, with potential savings of at least $15.4 billion a year by 2035 from efficient fixtures and smart controls combined.",
        "hero_image": "/images/dark-sky-lighting.webp",
        "category": "lighting",
        "published_at": "2026-09-23T00:00:00.000Z",
        "updated_at": "2026-09-23T00:00:00.000Z",
        "sources_json": "[\"https://darksky.org/resources/guides-and-how-tos/lighting-principles/\",\"https://darksky.org/what-we-do/darksky-approved/darksky-approved-luminaires-program/\",\"https://law.justia.com/codes/arizona/2022/title-49/section-49-1101/\",\"https://flagstaff.az.gov/4042/Dark-Sky\",\"https://www.tucsonaz.gov/files/sharedassets/public/v/1/city-services/planning-development-services/documents/2012_outdoor_lighting_code_.pdf\",\"https://www.accessfixtures.com/maine-responsible-outdoor-lighting-act/\",\"https://law.justia.com/codes/florida/2020/title-xxviii/chapter-379/part-ii/section-379-2431/\",\"https://floridadep.gov/sites/default/files/62B-55_ModelLightingOrdinance_NPR_0.pdf\",\"http://darkskynm.org/nspa.pdf\",\"https://law.justia.com/codes/hawaii/2018/title-13/chapter-201/section-201-8.5/\",\"https://www.cieletoilemontmegantic.org/en/reglementations\",\"https://www.energy.gov/femp/purchasing-energy-efficient-exterior-lighting\",\"https://darksky.org/news/light-is-energy-estimating-the-impact-of-light-pollution-on-climate-change/\"]",
        "hero_alt": "A fully shielded, warm-colored porch light casting a soft downward glow against a star-filled night sky, with no glare escaping upward."
      },
      {
        "slug": "dark-sky-laws",
        "title": "Dark Sky Laws by State: US Outdoor Lighting Rules",
        "description": "See every US state and Canadian province with a dark sky or outdoor lighting law, from Arizona's 1986 statute to Maine's 2026 act, with citations.",
        "body_md": "Six states, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Maine, Michigan, and New Mexico, have a genuine statewide outdoor lighting law on the books, according to the primary statutes collected here. Seventeen more states have limited laws that cover only state buildings, highways, or a single issue like sea turtle nesting, and the remaining 28 states plus Washington, D.C. have no statewide statute at all, leaving the job to cities and counties, as the [National Conference of State Legislatures](https://www.ncsl.org/environment-and-natural-resources/states-shut-out-light-pollution) confirms. Below is the full 50-state-plus-D.C. table, a matching table for Canada's provinces and territories, and a plain explanation of what these laws actually require. ## Why outdoor lighting got legislated Outdoor lighting law grew out of four separate pressures that converged over the last four decades. The earliest driver was astronomy: observatories at Kitt Peak, Mount Lemmon, and Lowell Observatory pushed [Flagstaff, Arizona to pass a searchlight ordinance in 1958](https://flagstaff.az.gov/4042/Dark-Sky), decades before any state acted, and that same pressure produced Arizona's 1986 statewide statute described below. Wildlife protection followed: Florida's [Marine Turtle Protection Act](https://law.justia.com/codes/florida/2020/title-xxviii/chapter-379/part-ii/section-379-2431/) and Illinois's [Bird-Safe Buildings Act](https://ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/fulltext.asp?DocName=002004050K405-317) both restrict lighting specifically to stop disoriented hatchlings and migrating birds from flying into buildings. Energy and cost concerns show up in nearly every state-facility statute on this list, such as [Maryland's](https://law.justia.com/codes/maryland/2013/article-gsf/section-14-412/) and [Minnesota's](https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/16B.328), which require efficient, shielded fixtures on public buildings to cut wasted light and wasted electricity together. Most recently, glare and light trespass, one neighbor's light spilling into another's yard or bedroom window, has driven a wave of municipal nuisance-lighting bylaws, including [Calgary's Community Standards Bylaw](https://www.calgary.ca/bylaws/outdoor-lights.html) and [Mississauga's Nuisance Lighting By-law](https://www.mississauga.ca/file/COM/nuisancelighting2013.pdf). Safety is the counterweight in every one of these debates: nobody is arguing for unlit streets, only for light that is shielded and aimed down instead of spilled sideways and up. That distinction, glare versus usable light, is the core idea behind every ordinance on this page, and it is explained in more detail in our guide to [dark-sky-friendly outdoor lighting](/dark-sky-lighting). ## Dark sky laws in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. \"Statewide law\" below means a real outdoor-lighting or light-pollution statute applies broadly across the state. \"Limited law\" means the rule covers only state-funded buildings, highways, a single wildlife issue, or a voluntary program. \"No statewide law\" means regulation, if any, exists only at the city or county level. Click any state to see its full statute list, municipal codes, and sources on its own page in the [dark sky laws hub](/laws). | State | Status | Key law (citation) | What it does |\n|---|---|---|---|\n| [Alabama](/laws/AL) | No statewide law | No statewide law | No outdoor lighting statute; no notable municipal dark-sky ordinance found. |\n| [Alaska](/laws/AK) | No statewide law | No statewide law | No outdoor lighting or light pollution statute. |\n| [Arizona](/laws/AZ) | Statewide law | [A.R.S. §§ 49-1101 to 49-1104](https://law.justia.com/codes/arizona/2022/title-49/section-49-1101/) (1986) | The country's oldest dark-sky law; requires shielded fixtures statewide and bans new mercury vapor lamps. |\n| [Arkansas](/laws/AR) | Statewide law | [Shielded Outdoor Lighting Act, Ark. Code §§ 8-14-101 to 8-14-107](https://law.justia.com/codes/arkansas/title-8/chapter-14/section-8-14-107/) (2005) | Requires shielded fixtures statewide, but yields to any stricter local ordinance. |\n| [California](/laws/CA) | No statewide law | No statewide law | Regulated only through Title 24 energy code and local ordinances, such as [San Diego County's](https://www.sandiegocounty.gov/content/dam/sdc/pds/docs/pds211.pdf) near Palomar Observatory. |\n| [Colorado](/laws/CO) | Limited law | [C.R.S. § 24-82-902](https://law.justia.com/codes/colorado/2025/title-24/state-property/article-82/part-9/section-24-82-902/); [§ 24-49.7-110](https://law.justia.com/codes/colorado/2023/title-24/other-agencies/article-49-7/section-24-49-7-110/) (2022) | Covers state-funded lighting only; a 2022 program grants funds toward Dark Sky designation. |\n| [Connecticut](/laws/CT) | Limited law | [Conn. Gen. Stat. § 4b-16](https://law.justia.com/codes/connecticut/title-4b/chapter-59/section-4b-16/) | Shielding standards for state building grounds and highway lighting, not private property. |\n| [Delaware](/laws/DE) | Statewide law | [Del. Code tit. 7, ch. 71A, § 7101A](https://law.justia.com/codes/delaware/title-7/chapter-71a/section-7101a/) (75 Del. Laws, c. 202, 2005-2006 session) | Defines light pollution and cutoff luminaires, and requires them for new or replaced outdoor lighting built with state funds. |\n| [District of Columbia](/laws/DC) | No statewide law | No statewide law | Only directs a study of adaptive street lighting technology; sets no lighting limits. |\n| [Florida](/laws/FL) | Limited law | [Fla. Stat. § 379.2431](https://law.justia.com/codes/florida/2020/title-xxviii/chapter-379/part-ii/section-379-2431/); [Model Lighting Ordinance, Fla. Admin. Code r. 62B-55](https://floridadep.gov/sites/default/files/62B-55_ModelLightingOrdinance_NPR_0.pdf) | A statewide model ordinance restricts beachfront lighting for nesting sea turtles where over 50 counties and cities have adopted it locally. |\n| [Georgia](/laws/GA) | No statewide law | No statewide law | Sea-turtle lighting is handled by individual coastal cities, such as Tybee and Jekyll Island. |\n| [Hawaii](/laws/HI) | Limited law | [Haw. Rev. Stat. § 201-8.5](https://law.justia.com/codes/hawaii/2018/title-13/chapter-201/section-201-8.5/) | Requires shielded, 4,000K-or-cooler state-agency fixtures in counties over 100,000 residents. |\n| [Idaho](/laws/ID) | No statewide law | No statewide law | No outdoor lighting or light pollution statute. |\n| [Illinois](/laws/IL) | Limited law | [Bird-Safe Buildings Act, 20 ILCS 405/405-317](https://ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/fulltext.asp?DocName=002004050K405-317) (2021) | Reduces nighttime lighting on new state buildings, mainly to cut bird collisions. |\n| [Indiana](/laws/IN) | No statewide law | No statewide law | Related statutes cover solar/wind glare and airport lighting only. |\n| [Iowa](/laws/IA) | No statewide law | No statewide law | Related statute covers only lights that interfere with highway signals. |\n| [Kansas](/laws/KS) | No statewide law | No statewide law | Related statutes cover highway signage and wind turbine obstruction lighting. |\n| [Kentucky](/laws/KY) | No statewide law | No statewide law | Related statutes cover highway advertising devices, not general lighting. |\n| [Louisiana](/laws/LA) | No statewide law | No statewide law | No outdoor lighting or light pollution statute. |\n| [Maine](/laws/ME) | Statewide law | [An Act to Promote Responsible Outdoor Lighting, LD 1934](https://www.accessfixtures.com/maine-responsible-outdoor-lighting-act/) (2026) | Caps new public lighting at 3000K, requires shielding above 1,000 lumens, and adds curfews; effective October 1, 2026. |\n| [Maryland](/laws/MD) | Limited law | [Md. Code Ann., State Fin. & Proc. § 14-412](https://law.justia.com/codes/maryland/2013/article-gsf/section-14-412/) | Applies only to state-funded lighting on state building grounds. |\n| [Massachusetts](/laws/MA) | No statewide law (bill pending) | [An Act to Improve Outdoor Lighting, S.3145/H.3164](https://malegislature.gov/Bills/193/H3164.Html) | Would cap color temperature and require shielding on public lighting; passed the Senate and was [still moving through the House as of August 2026](https://recorder.com/2026/08/11/massachusetts-dark-skies-bill-advances/). |\n| [Michigan](/laws/MI) | Statewide law | [Mich. Comp. Laws §§ 324.75101 to 324.75106](https://law.justia.com/codes/michigan/2023/chapter-324/statute-act-451-of-1994/article-iii/division-451-1994-iii-4/division-451-1994-iii-4-2/division-451-1994-iii-4-2-parks/division-451-1994-iii-4-2-parks-751/section-324-75106/) (2015) | Lets the DNR designate state-park dark sky preserves with their own lighting rules. |\n| [Minnesota](/laws/MN) | Limited law | [Minn. Stat. § 16B.328](https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/16B.328) | Requires cutoff luminaires on new state-funded lighting, including highways. |\n| [Mississippi](/laws/MS) | No statewide law | No statewide law | No outdoor lighting or light pollution statute. |\n| [Missouri](/laws/MO) | No statewide law | No statewide law | Related statute covers only lighting on permitted highway signs. |\n| [Montana](/laws/MT) | No statewide law | No statewide law | Regulated locally; [Missoula](https://www.ci.missoula.mt.us/DocumentCenter/View/587/Lighting-Ordinance-Number-3341), Whitefish, Great Falls, Livingston, and Kalispell each have their own code. |\n| [Nebraska](/laws/NE) | No statewide law | No statewide law | Not listed among states with light-pollution legislation by NCSL. |\n| [Nevada](/laws/NV) | Limited law | [NRS 407A.570(3)(m), 2021 SB 52](https://archive.leg.state.nv.us/Session/81st2021/Bills/SB/SB52_EN.pdf) | Created a voluntary Dark Sky designation program; sets no fixture or curfew rules. |\n| [New Hampshire](/laws/NH) | Limited law | [RSA Title 9-E, § 9-E:3](https://law.justia.com/codes/new-hampshire/2022/title-i/title-9-e/section-9-e-3/) (2009) | States it is policy to encourage, not require, towns to adopt dark-sky ordinances. |\n| [New Jersey](/laws/NJ) | No statewide law | No statewide law | A study commission and [bill A3080](https://pub.njleg.gov/Bills/2022/A3500/3080_I1.HTM) exist, but no statute has passed. |\n| [New Mexico](/laws/NM) | Statewide law | [Night Sky Protection Act, NMSA 1978 §§ 74-12-1 to 74-12-10](http://darkskynm.org/nspa.pdf) (1999) | Requires shielded fixtures statewide and an 11 p.m. curfew on outdoor recreation lighting. |\n| [New York](/laws/NY) | Limited law | [N.Y. Public Buildings Law § 143](https://www.ncsl.org/environment-and-natural-resources/states-shut-out-light-pollution) | Requires fully-shielded fixtures on new state buildings only; broader [2025 bills](https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2025/A4615) remain unenacted. |\n| [North Carolina](/laws/NC) | No statewide law | No statewide law | A statewide Sea Turtle Protection Act has been [filed repeatedly but not passed](https://www.ncleg.gov/Sessions/2023/Bills/House/HTML/H1053v1.HTML). |\n| [North Dakota](/laws/ND) | No statewide law | No statewide law | A [2025 dark-sky resolution failed](https://northdakotamonitor.com/briefs/dark-sky-week-deemed-dangerous-fails-in-north-dakota-senate/) in the state Senate. |\n| [Ohio](/laws/OH) | No statewide law | No statewide law | Regulated locally, e.g. [Moreland Hills](https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/morelandhills/latest/morelandhills_oh/0-0-0-15694), Gambier, and Green. |\n| [Oklahoma](/laws/OK) | No statewide law | No statewide law | Related statutes cover vehicle lamps, not fixed outdoor lighting. |\n| [Oregon](/laws/OR) | Limited law | [Or. Rev. Stat. § 455.573](https://www.ncsl.org/environment-and-natural-resources/states-shut-out-light-pollution) | Requires shielded fixtures on public buildings only. |\n| [Pennsylvania](/laws/PA) | No statewide law | No statewide law | A [2023 bill](https://www.palegis.us/legislation/bills/text/PDF/2023/0/HB1803/PN3015) was introduced but not enacted. |\n| [Rhode Island](/laws/RI) | Limited law | [R.I. Gen. Laws §§ 42-136-1 et seq.](https://www.ncsl.org/environment-and-natural-resources/states-shut-out-light-pollution) | Limits upward light from state-funded fixtures above 3,200 lumens. |\n| [South Carolina](/laws/SC) | No statewide law | No statewide law | A statewide Sea Turtle Protection Act has died in committee repeatedly since 2009. |\n| [South Dakota](/laws/SD) | No statewide law | No statewide law | Not listed among states with light-pollution legislation by NCSL. |\n| [Tennessee](/laws/TN) | No statewide law | No statewide law | Related statute covers vehicle lighting only. |\n| [Texas](/laws/TX) | Limited law | [Tex. Health & Safety Code ch. 425](https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/HS/htm/HS.425.HTM); [Local Gov't Code § 240.031](https://darkskytexas.org/texas-outdoor-lighting-codes-regulations/) (2021) | Covers state-funded facilities; lets select counties regulate lighting near bases and observatories. |\n| [Utah](/laws/UT) | No statewide law | No statewide law | Only non-binding resolutions passed; binding rules exist locally, e.g. [Emigration Canyon](https://www.utah.gov/pmn/files/847297.pdf). |\n| [Vermont](/laws/VT) | Limited law | [10 V.S.A. § 591](https://law.justia.com/codes/vermont/2009/title-10/chapter-24/591/) | Sets up an advisory board for voluntary municipal guidelines, not mandatory rules. |\n| [Virginia](/laws/VA) | Limited law | [Va. Code § 2.2-1111](https://www.ncsl.org/environment-and-natural-resources/states-shut-out-light-pollution); [§ 15.2-920](https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title15.2/chapter9/section15.2-920/) | Requires shielded fixtures at state agencies; authorizes, does not require, local rules near sensitive sites. |\n| [Washington](/laws/WA) | Limited law | [2023 HB 1173](https://lawfilesext.leg.wa.gov/Biennium/2023-24/Htm/Bills/House%20Bills/1173.htm) | Requires wind turbines to use aircraft-detection lighting instead of continuous obstruction lights. |\n| [West Virginia](/laws/WV) | No statewide law | No statewide law | A [1999 bill](http://www.wvlegislature.gov/Bill_Status/bills_text.cfm?billdoc=HB2995+INTR.htm&yr=1999&sesstype=RS&i=2995) was introduced but not confirmed enacted. |\n| [Wisconsin](/laws/WI) | No statewide law | No statewide law | Regulated locally, e.g. [Madison](https://captimes.com/news/government/madison-city-council-adjusts-outdoor-light-rules-to-apply-as-dark-sky-community/article_489270ec-a9b8-5038-b250-a0587e6f887b.html) and the Town of Amnicon. |\n| [Wyoming](/laws/WY) | Limited law | [Wyo. Stat. § 37-16-202](https://www.ncsl.org/environment-and-natural-resources/states-shut-out-light-pollution) | Requires utilities to offer a light-trespass-reducing tariff option; not a mandate. | ## The states that led the way Five states anchor the story of how dark-sky law actually spread. [Arizona passed the first statewide outdoor lighting law in 1986](https://law.justia.com/codes/arizona/2022/title-49/section-49-1101/), building on Flagstaff's 1958 searchlight ordinance and the observatory-protection movement around Kitt Peak and Lowell Observatory; Flagstaff itself became the [world's first International Dark Sky Place in 2001](https://flagstaff.az.gov/4042/Dark-Sky). Thirteen years later, [New Mexico's Night Sky Protection Act of 1999](http://darkskynm.org/nspa.pdf) became the second statewide law, requiring shielded fixtures and putting an 11 p.m. curfew on lit sports fields except to finish a game in progress. For nearly two decades no other state followed with a comparably broad statute. [Delaware](https://law.justia.com/codes/delaware/title-7/chapter-71a/section-7101a/) adopted a narrower rule in its 2005-2006 legislative session, defining light pollution and requiring cutoff luminaires, but only for outdoor lighting fixtures built or replaced with state funds, not a general statewide framework. Maine closed that gap in 2026: its [Act to Promote Responsible Outdoor Lighting](https://www.accessfixtures.com/maine-responsible-outdoor-lighting-act/) takes effect October 1, 2026, capping new public lighting at 3000 Kelvin, requiring full shielding above 1,000 lumens, and giving municipalities until December 31, 2028 to extend similar rules to private property. Massachusetts may be next: its [Dark Skies bill](https://malegislature.gov/Bills/193/H3164.Html) passed the Senate in 2026 and was still working through the House as of August 2026, without having reached the governor's desk. ## Canadian provinces and territories No Canadian province has a broad, dedicated outdoor-lighting statute comparable to Arizona's or New Mexico's. Instead, protection comes from a patchwork of municipal bylaws, provincial park policy, and federally managed national parks, several of which carry a [Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC) Dark-Sky Preserve](https://rasc.ca/lpa/dark-sky-sites) designation. | Province/territory | Status | Key rule | What it does |\n|---|---|---|---|\n| [Alberta](/laws/AB) | Municipal only | [Calgary Community Standards Bylaw 32M2023](https://www.calgary.ca/bylaws/outdoor-lights.html) (2023) | Bans outdoor lights that shine directly into a neighboring home's living or sleeping areas; [Bon Accord became Canada's first certified Dark Sky Community in 2015](https://darksky.org/locations/canada/). |\n| [British Columbia](/laws/BC) | None | No provincial or municipal bylaw | A [Vancouver councillor's push](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/elizabeth-ball-seeks-dark-sky-legislation-for-vancouver-light-pollution-1.2943019) for dark-sky rules did not produce a bylaw. |\n| [Manitoba](/laws/MB) | Provincial policy | [Manitoba Parks Dark-Sky Preserve program](https://www.gov.mb.ca/sd/parks/recreation-and-activities/nightskies/index.html) (2022) | Spruce Woods Provincial Park became the province's first RASC Dark-Sky Preserve on September 4, 2022. |\n| [New Brunswick](/laws/NB) | Park-based | No dedicated provincial statute | Fundy, Kouchibouguac, and Mount Carleton are all [RASC Dark-Sky Preserves](https://rasc.ca/lpa/dark-sky-sites). |\n| [Newfoundland and Labrador](/laws/NL) | None | No provincial or municipal law | [Terra Nova National Park was designated a RASC Dark-Sky Preserve in 2018](https://www.canada.ca/en/parks-canada/news/2018/03/terra-nova-national-park-officially-designated-as-a-dark-sky-preserve.html). |\n| [Nova Scotia](/laws/NS) | None | No provincial or municipal law | Kejimkujik National Park has been a RASC Dark-Sky Preserve since 2010. |\n| [Ontario](/laws/ON) | Municipal only | [Huntsville Outdoor Lighting By-law](https://doppleronline.ca/huntsville/outdoor-lighting-bylaw/) (2016); [Muskoka Lakes Dark Sky By-law 2023-009](https://muskokalakes.civicweb.net/document/78279/) | Cottage-country towns lead Canada on local shielding rules; Ontario also holds more RASC Dark-Sky Preserves than any other province. |\n| [Prince Edward Island](/laws/PE) | None | No provincial or municipal law | A [South Shore dark-sky preserve](https://www.countylive.ca/imagining-a-dark-sky-preserve-at-countys-south-shore/) has been discussed but not created. |\n| [Quebec](/laws/QC) | Regional bylaw | [Règlement de contrôle de l'éclairage extérieur, MRC du Granit](https://www.cieletoilemontmegantic.org/en/reglementations) (2020) | Caps color temperature at 2200K and imposes evening curfews around the Mont-Megantic International Dark Sky Reserve. |\n| [Saskatchewan](/laws/SK) | None | No provincial or municipal law | Protection comes from Grasslands National Park and Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park. |\n| [Yukon](/laws/YT) | None | No territorial or municipal law | No officially designated dark-sky site yet, despite proposals for Kluane National Park. |\n| [Northwest Territories](/laws/NT) | None | No territorial or municipal law | Wood Buffalo National Park has been a RASC Dark-Sky Preserve since 2013. |\n| [Nunavut](/laws/NU) | None | No legislation, no designated site | None has been publicly proposed to date. | Quebec's rules stand out as the most detailed in Canada: three regional municipalities around the [Mont-Megantic International Dark Sky Reserve](https://www.cieletoilemontmegantic.org/en/reglementations), Sherbrooke, Haut-Saint-Francois, and Granit, jointly cap upward light spill at 1 to 2.5 percent and set 10 p.m. or 11 p.m. curfews on non-essential outdoor lighting. ## Municipal ordinances: where most of the real protection lives Because 28 US states and most Canadian provinces have no statewide law, cities and counties do the actual regulating. Two Arizona examples show the range: [Flagstaff's lighting code](https://flagstaff.az.gov/4042/Dark-Sky) traces to a 1958 searchlight restriction, while the joint city-county [Tucson/Pima County Outdoor Lighting Code](https://www.tucsonaz.gov/files/sharedassets/public/v/1/city-services/planning-development-services/documents/2012_outdoor_lighting_code_.pdf), first adopted in the 1990s and revised in 2012 and 2024, limits shielding, total lumens, and color temperature to protect the observatories on Kitt Peak and Mount Lemmon. In Colorado, [Westcliffe and Silver Cliff](https://darkskycolorado.org/darsky-colorado/) adopted a joint ordinance to become the state's first International Dark Sky Community in 2015. In Ontario, [Huntsville's bylaw](https://doppleronline.ca/huntsville/outdoor-lighting-bylaw/) required full cutoff, downward-shielded fixtures on new construction starting in January 2016 and gave existing property owners until January 2026 to upgrade, while also restricting dock lights to warm amber or yellow tones. Florida takes a hybrid approach: the state maintains one [statewide model lighting ordinance for sea turtle protection](https://floridadep.gov/sites/default/files/62B-55_ModelLightingOrdinance_NPR_0.pdf), and it only takes legal effect where a county or city, such as [Volusia County](https://www.volusia.org/core/fileparse.php/6748/urlt/Turtle-Lighting-508.pdf) or [Sarasota](https://sarasota.wateratlas.usf.edu/upload/documents/OrdNo2004-118_signedUpdated.pdf), formally adopts it. If your town has no ordinance at all, New Jersey's [voluntary model lighting ordinance template](https://anjec.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/New-Jersey-Model-Lighting-Ordinance-Template-for-Municipalities.pdf) and the [joint IDA-IES Model Lighting Ordinance](https://store.ies.org/product/ida-ies-mlo-11-model-lighting-ordinance-mlo-with-users-guide/), the reference document most US municipal codes on this page draw from, are the two most useful starting drafts for a town council to adapt. ## What a good outdoor lighting ordinance actually requires Whether it is a 1986 state statute or a 2025 township bylaw, the ordinances that hold up over time converge on the same handful of rules, closely tracking DarkSky International's [five principles for responsible outdoor lighting](https://darksky.org/resources/guides-and-how-tos/lighting-principles/): light should have a clear purpose, be directed only where needed, be no brighter than necessary, be controlled with timers or motion sensors, and use warmer color temperatures. In statute language, that becomes four concrete requirements. Shielding: fixtures must be \"fully shielded\" or \"full cutoff,\" meaning no light escapes above the horizontal plane of the fixture, the core requirement in [Arizona's](https://law.justia.com/codes/arizona/2022/title-49/section-49-1101/), [New Mexico's](http://darkskynm.org/nspa.pdf), and [Maine's](https://www.accessfixtures.com/maine-responsible-outdoor-lighting-act/) laws. Color temperature: newer laws such as Maine's cap fixtures at 3000 Kelvin or lower, and Quebec's Mont-Megantic zone goes further at 2200K, because bluer, cooler light scatters more in the atmosphere and washes out more stars. Brightness limits: rules are typically written as a lumen threshold, commonly 1,800 lumens (roughly a 100-watt incandescent equivalent) in [Maryland's](https://law.justia.com/codes/maryland/2013/article-gsf/section-14-412/) and [Minnesota's](https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/16B.328) statutes, above which shielding becomes mandatory. Curfews: New Mexico requires recreational field lighting off by 11 p.m., Maine requires nonessential lighting off between 10 p.m. and sunrise, and Quebec's regional rule sets a similar 10 or 11 p.m. cutoff for non-essential fixtures. Homeowners looking to meet these standards on their own property, whether or not their town requires it, can find fixture-by-fixture guidance in our [dark-sky-friendly outdoor lighting guide](/dark-sky-lighting). ## How to push for a lighting ordinance in your town Every ordinance on this page started with a resident or a small group raising the issue with a town council or county board, usually with three ingredients: a specific complaint (glare from a new development, a sports field kept lit past bedtime, or a stargazing spot losing its view), a model to point to (the [IDA-IES Model Lighting Ordinance](https://store.ies.org/product/ida-ies-mlo-11-model-lighting-ordinance-mlo-with-users-guide/) or a neighboring town's bylaw, such as [Huntsville's](https://doppleronline.ca/huntsville/outdoor-lighting-bylaw/)), and a champion on the council willing to sponsor a vote, the path New Hampshire's law explicitly [encourages towns to follow](https://law.justia.com/codes/new-hampshire/2022/title-i/title-9-e/section-9-e-3/) even without mandating it. DarkSky International's own [International Dark Sky Places program](https://darksky.org/) certifies parks, communities, and preserves that adopt qualifying lighting rules, giving a town a concrete, marketable goal to organize around, similar to how [Westcliffe and Silver Cliff, Colorado](https://darkskycolorado.org/darsky-colorado/) and [Bon Accord, Alberta](https://darksky.org/locations/canada/) built their bylaws around that same certification. Once a rule passes, the certified parks and preserves it protects show up in our [dark sky places directory](/places), and the celestial events worth protecting a dark view for are tracked on our [events calendar](/events). ## Quick answers **Which US states have dark sky laws?** Six states, Arizona (1986), Arkansas (2005), Delaware (2005-2006), Maine (2026), Michigan (2015), and New Mexico (1999), have statewide outdoor lighting laws. Seventeen more have limited laws covering only state buildings, highways, or specific issues like sea turtles, and 28 states plus [Washington, D.C. have no statewide statute](https://www.ncsl.org/environment-and-natural-resources/states-shut-out-light-pollution) at all. **Is light pollution illegal?** Only where a specific law makes it so. In [Arizona](https://law.justia.com/codes/arizona/2022/title-49/section-49-1101/) and [New Mexico](http://darkskynm.org/nspa.pdf), unshielded new fixtures above the statutory threshold are a violation; in most other states, a neighbor's glaring floodlight is a nuisance matter for local code enforcement or civil court, not a state crime, unless your city has its own bylaw like [Mississauga's](https://www.mississauga.ca/file/COM/nuisancelighting2013.pdf). **What is a full cutoff fixture requirement?** It means a light fixture must be built and aimed so no light escapes above the horizontal plane of the fixture itself, eliminating direct uplight into the sky. It is the central mechanic of [Arizona's](https://law.justia.com/codes/arizona/2022/title-49/section-49-1101/), [New Mexico's](http://darkskynm.org/nspa.pdf), and [Maine's](https://www.accessfixtures.com/maine-responsible-outdoor-lighting-act/) statutes and most municipal codes on this page. **Do any Canadian provinces regulate outdoor lighting?** No province has a broad statute; [Manitoba](https://www.gov.mb.ca/sd/parks/recreation-and-activities/nightskies/index.html) runs a provincial dark-sky preserve program, and regional rules around Quebec's [Mont-Megantic reserve](https://www.cieletoilemontmegantic.org/en/reglementations) and Ontario cottage-country towns like [Huntsville](https://doppleronline.ca/huntsville/outdoor-lighting-bylaw/) are the strictest in the country. **Can my neighbor's light be a legal nuisance?** In places with a light-trespass bylaw, such as [Calgary's](https://www.calgary.ca/bylaws/outdoor-lights.html), yes, a fixture that shines directly into your living or sleeping area can be a bylaw violation you can report. Elsewhere it typically falls under general nuisance law, which varies by state and is worth checking with your local code enforcement office before assuming nothing can be done. **Which state passed the first dark-sky law?** [Arizona, in 1986](https://law.justia.com/codes/arizona/2022/title-49/section-49-1101/), remains the oldest statewide outdoor lighting law in the country, though Flagstaff's 1958 municipal searchlight restriction predates it by nearly three decades and helped inspire it. Learn more about how light pollution affects what you can actually see at night in our guide to [stargazing for beginners](/stargazing-for-beginners).",
        "hero_image": "/images/dark-sky-laws.webp",
        "category": "laws",
        "published_at": "2026-09-23T00:00:00.000Z",
        "updated_at": "2026-09-23T00:00:00.000Z",
        "sources_json": "[\"https://law.justia.com/codes/arizona/2022/title-49/section-49-1101/\",\"https://flagstaff.az.gov/4042/Dark-Sky\",\"https://www.tucsonaz.gov/files/sharedassets/public/v/1/city-services/planning-development-services/documents/2012_outdoor_lighting_code_.pdf\",\"https://law.justia.com/codes/arkansas/title-8/chapter-14/section-8-14-107/\",\"https://www.sandiegocounty.gov/content/dam/sdc/pds/docs/pds211.pdf\",\"https://law.justia.com/codes/colorado/2025/title-24/state-property/article-82/part-9/section-24-82-902/\",\"https://law.justia.com/codes/colorado/2023/title-24/other-agencies/article-49-7/section-24-49-7-110/\",\"https://darkskycolorado.org/darsky-colorado/\",\"https://law.justia.com/codes/connecticut/title-4b/chapter-59/section-4b-16/\",\"https://law.justia.com/codes/delaware/title-7/chapter-71a/section-7101a/\",\"https://law.justia.com/codes/florida/2020/title-xxviii/chapter-379/part-ii/section-379-2431/\",\"https://floridadep.gov/sites/default/files/62B-55_ModelLightingOrdinance_NPR_0.pdf\",\"https://www.volusia.org/core/fileparse.php/6748/urlt/Turtle-Lighting-508.pdf\",\"https://sarasota.wateratlas.usf.edu/upload/documents/OrdNo2004-118_signedUpdated.pdf\",\"https://law.justia.com/codes/hawaii/2018/title-13/chapter-201/section-201-8.5/\",\"https://ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/fulltext.asp?DocName=002004050K405-317\",\"https://www.accessfixtures.com/maine-responsible-outdoor-lighting-act/\",\"https://law.justia.com/codes/maryland/2013/article-gsf/section-14-412/\",\"https://malegislature.gov/Bills/193/H3164.Html\",\"https://recorder.com/2026/08/11/massachusetts-dark-skies-bill-advances/\",\"https://law.justia.com/codes/michigan/2023/chapter-324/statute-act-451-of-1994/article-iii/division-451-1994-iii-4/division-451-1994-iii-4-2/division-451-1994-iii-4-2-parks/division-451-1994-iii-4-2-parks-751/section-324-75106/\",\"https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/16B.328\",\"https://www.ci.missoula.mt.us/DocumentCenter/View/587/Lighting-Ordinance-Number-3341\",\"https://www.ncsl.org/environment-and-natural-resources/states-shut-out-light-pollution\",\"https://archive.leg.state.nv.us/Session/81st2021/Bills/SB/SB52_EN.pdf\",\"https://law.justia.com/codes/new-hampshire/2022/title-i/title-9-e/section-9-e-3/\",\"https://pub.njleg.gov/Bills/2022/A3500/3080_I1.HTM\",\"http://darkskynm.org/nspa.pdf\",\"https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2025/A4615\",\"https://www.ncleg.gov/Sessions/2023/Bills/House/HTML/H1053v1.HTML\",\"https://northdakotamonitor.com/briefs/dark-sky-week-deemed-dangerous-fails-in-north-dakota-senate/\",\"https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/morelandhills/latest/morelandhills_oh/0-0-0-15694\",\"https://www.palegis.us/legislation/bills/text/PDF/2023/0/HB1803/PN3015\",\"https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/HS/htm/HS.425.HTM\",\"https://darkskytexas.org/texas-outdoor-lighting-codes-regulations/\",\"https://www.utah.gov/pmn/files/847297.pdf\",\"https://law.justia.com/codes/vermont/2009/title-10/chapter-24/591/\",\"https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title15.2/chapter9/section15.2-920/\",\"https://lawfilesext.leg.wa.gov/Biennium/2023-24/Htm/Bills/House%20Bills/1173.htm\",\"http://www.wvlegislature.gov/Bill_Status/bills_text.cfm?billdoc=HB2995+INTR.htm&yr=1999&sesstype=RS&i=2995\",\"https://captimes.com/news/government/madison-city-council-adjusts-outdoor-light-rules-to-apply-as-dark-sky-community/article_489270ec-a9b8-5038-b250-a0587e6f887b.html\",\"https://www.calgary.ca/bylaws/outdoor-lights.html\",\"https://darksky.org/locations/canada/\",\"https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/elizabeth-ball-seeks-dark-sky-legislation-for-vancouver-light-pollution-1.2943019\",\"https://www.gov.mb.ca/sd/parks/recreation-and-activities/nightskies/index.html\",\"https://rasc.ca/lpa/dark-sky-sites\",\"https://www.canada.ca/en/parks-canada/news/2018/03/terra-nova-national-park-officially-designated-as-a-dark-sky-preserve.html\",\"https://doppleronline.ca/huntsville/outdoor-lighting-bylaw/\",\"https://muskokalakes.civicweb.net/document/78279/\",\"https://www.mississauga.ca/file/COM/nuisancelighting2013.pdf\",\"https://www.countylive.ca/imagining-a-dark-sky-preserve-at-countys-south-shore/\",\"https://www.cieletoilemontmegantic.org/en/reglementations\",\"https://anjec.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/New-Jersey-Model-Lighting-Ordinance-Template-for-Municipalities.pdf\",\"https://darksky.org/resources/guides-and-how-tos/lighting-principles/\",\"https://store.ies.org/product/ida-ies-mlo-11-model-lighting-ordinance-mlo-with-users-guide/\",\"https://darksky.org/\"]",
        "hero_alt": "A shielded, downward-facing streetlight glowing warm amber against a star-filled night sky."
      },
      {
        "slug": "constellations",
        "title": "Famous Constellations and When to See Them",
        "description": "A season-by-season guide to Orion, the Big Dipper, Cassiopeia, Cygnus and more, calibrated for US and Canada latitudes, with star and myth notes.",
        "body_md": "Orion the Hunter, the Big Dipper, Cassiopeia's \"W,\" Cygnus's Northern Cross: these are the constellations most people in the US and Canada actually notice, and each one has a season when it climbs highest and a season when it disappears. This guide walks through the [88 constellations the International Astronomical Union (IAU) officially recognizes](https://iauarchive.eso.org/public/themes/constellations/), the dozen or so that dominate North American skies, and exactly when and where to look for each one from mid-northern latitudes. Every entry includes its standout stars, its best deep-sky targets, and the short myth behind its name. ## How constellations work: asterisms, the official 88, and the zodiac A constellation is a fixed, named region of sky, not just the bright pattern of stars inside it. In 1922 the newly formed IAU agreed on a list of 88 constellations that divide the entire celestial sphere, and by 1930 Belgian astronomer Eugène Delporte had drawn precise boundary lines for all of them, boundaries still used today in [the IAU's official constellation reference](https://iauarchive.eso.org/public/themes/constellations/). [NASA's Space Place](https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/constellations/en/) puts it simply: there are 88 officially recognized constellations, and different cultures historically grouped the same stars into different shapes and numbers. Many of the patterns stargazers actually point out, like the Big Dipper or the Summer Triangle, are asterisms: informal star groupings that sit inside one or more official constellations rather than being constellations themselves. The Big Dipper, for example, is an asterism made of seven stars within the much larger constellation Ursa Major, [NOIRLab's 88 Constellations project](https://noirlab.edu/public/education/constellations/ursa-major/) notes. The 12 zodiac \"signs\" are a separate, older idea: the constellations that lie along the ecliptic, the Sun's apparent path across the sky over a year. Astrology assigns predictive meaning to them, but astronomy does not; as NASA Space Place explains, \"astrology is not the same thing as astronomy,\" since [astrology isn't based on scientific evidence](https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/constellations/en/) the way constellation positions and motions are. This guide treats the zodiac constellations (Leo, Taurus, Gemini, Sagittarius, Scorpius, and others) purely as the astronomical objects they are. ## Season-by-season guide, calibrated for US and Canada latitudes Which constellations you can see, and for how long, depends on your latitude, not just the calendar. The [International Astronomical Union's boundary system](https://iauarchive.eso.org/public/themes/constellations/) is the same everywhere, but a constellation near the north celestial pole can be visible all night, every night, from Yellowknife or Fairbanks, while the same stars skim the northern horizon from Houston or Miami and briefly disappear. That's because the size of the \"circumpolar\" zone, the patch of sky that never sets, grows with latitude: at the pole every star is circumpolar, at the equator none are, and in between the circumpolar radius roughly equals your latitude in degrees, [EarthSky explains](https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/what-are-circumpolar-stars/). The table below assumes evening viewing (roughly 9 to 11 p.m. local time) from mid-northern latitudes across the continental US and southern Canada; observers farther north (the Prairies, the Maritimes, Alaska, the Yukon) will find these constellations climbing higher and staying visible longer each season. | Season | Best evening months | Look toward | Signature constellations | Standout stars/objects |\n|---|---|---|---|---|\n| Winter | December to February | South, rising to overhead | Orion, Taurus, Gemini | Betelgeuse, Rigel, the Pleiades, Orion Nebula (M42) |\n| Spring | March to May | East, rising to overhead | Leo, Ursa Major | Regulus, the Big Dipper, the Leo Triplet galaxies |\n| Summer | June to August | South (low) to overhead | Scorpius, Sagittarius, Lyra, Cygnus | Antares, Vega, Deneb, the Lagoon Nebula (M8) |\n| Fall | September to November | East, rising to overhead | Andromeda, Cassiopeia, Pegasus | Andromeda Galaxy (M31), Cassiopeia's \"W\" |\n| Year-round | Any month | North | Ursa Major, Cassiopeia, Ursa Minor | The Big Dipper, Polaris | ## The finder constellations: the Big Dipper and Orion as anchors Two patterns unlock nearly everything else in the sky, which is why both work as the starting point in [stargazing for beginners](/stargazing-for-beginners). **The Big Dipper (in Ursa Major)** is visible from most of the US and Canada for at least part of every night, and its two \"pointer stars,\" Dubhe and Merak, on the outer edge of the bowl, line up almost exactly with Polaris, the North Star, [NASA explains](https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/what-is-the-north-star-and-how-do-you-find-it/). Follow the same pointer stars the opposite direction, south, and you land in Leo, according to [Globe at Night's constellation guide](https://globeatnight.org/constellation/leo/). **Orion** anchors the winter sky. Its three-star belt, Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka, is one of the most recognized patterns in astronomy, and extending the belt southeast points toward Sirius, the sky's brightest star, while extending it northwest points toward Aldebaran in Taurus, [per NOIRLab](https://noirlab.edu/public/education/constellations/orion/). ## Winter constellations (December to February) **Orion, the Hunter.** Named for a hunter in Greek mythology, Orion straddles the celestial equator, which is why it's visible from nearly anywhere on Earth, [NOIRLab notes](https://noirlab.edu/public/education/constellations/orion/). Its brightest stars are Betelgeuse, a red supergiant marking one shoulder, and Rigel, the sixth-brightest star in the night sky, marking a knee. Below the belt, the Orion Nebula (Messier 42), a star-forming region roughly 1,200 light-years away, is bright enough to see with the naked eye as a small smudge and stunning in binoculars. **Taurus, the Bull, and the Pleiades.** Taurus traces back to Sumerian mythology as the Bull of Heaven and, in Greek myth, the white bull Zeus became to abduct Europa, [NOIRLab explains](https://noirlab.edu/public/education/constellations/taurus/). Its brightest star, orange giant Aldebaran, marks the bull's eye. Tucked into Taurus's shoulder is the Pleiades (the \"Seven Sisters\"), an open star cluster about 440 light-years away that's visible to the naked eye and best seen November through April, with November evenings offering the longest view, [according to EarthSky](https://earthsky.org/favorite-star-patterns/pleiades-star-cluster-enjoys-worldwide-renown/). In Greek myth the cluster represents the seven daughters of Atlas and Pleione, and versions of a \"lost Pleiad\" story, about a star that's hard to see with the naked eye, appear across European, African, Asian, and Indigenous cultures, per the same source. **Gemini, the Twins.** Gemini represents the twins Castor and Pollux in Greek mythology and is primarily a winter and spring constellation, [NOIRLab notes](https://noirlab.edu/public/education/constellations/gemini/). Pollux, an orange giant 34 light-years away, is slightly brighter than Castor, a blue-white double star 52 light-years away that splits nicely in a small telescope. ## Spring constellations (March to May) **Leo, the Lion.** Leo's stars trace a backward question mark, or \"sickle,\" and represent the Nemean Lion that Hercules wrestled bare-handed in one of his Twelve Labors, since its hide was impervious to weapons, [Globe at Night recounts](https://globeatnight.org/constellation/leo/). Regulus, meaning \"little king,\" is the brightest star and is itself a double star visible in binoculars; Denebola marks the lion's tail. Through a small telescope, the Leo Triplet, three interacting galaxies (M65, M66, and NGC 3628), makes a rewarding target, [per NOIRLab](https://noirlab.edu/public/education/constellations/leo/). **Ursa Major, the Great Bear.** Ursa Major was one of Ptolemy's original 48 constellations, and the Greeks pictured a bear guiding travelers north, while ancient China called its brightest stars the Northern Dipper and ancient Mesopotamia called them the Wagon, [NOIRLab explains](https://noirlab.edu/public/education/constellations/ursa-major/). Beyond the Big Dipper asterism, look for Mizar and Alcor, a naked-eye double star, and, with binoculars or a telescope, the galaxy pair M81 and M82 about 11 million light-years away. ## Summer constellations (June to August) **Scorpius, the Scorpion.** Ancient Greeks connected Scorpius to Orion's death, while Babylonians saw it as a guardian of the netherworld, [NOIRLab notes](https://noirlab.edu/public/education/constellations/scorpius/). Its brightest star, Antares, a red supergiant about 550 light-years away, marks the scorpion's heart and glows noticeably orange-red. Scorpius rises low in the south for US and Canada observers, so a clear southern horizon (and a dark-sky site well away from city glow) matters more here than for most constellations on this list; nearby globular cluster M4 and open clusters M6 and M7 reward binocular views. **Sagittarius, the Archer.** Sagittarius traces back to the Babylonian god Pabilsag and was reimagined by the Greeks as either the archer Krotos or the wise centaur Chiron, [per NOIRLab](https://noirlab.edu/public/education/constellations/sagittarius/). It sits low in the southern sky for northern observers but rewards the effort: the Lagoon Nebula (M8), the Trifid Nebula (M20), and the globular cluster M22 all lie within it. **Lyra, the Lyre, and Cygnus, the Swan.** These two, along with Aquila, form the Summer Triangle asterism. Lyra represents the lyre of Orpheus in Greek myth, and its brightest star, Vega, is the sky's fifth-brightest and will itself become the North Star around the year 14,000 due to Earth's slow axial wobble, [NOIRLab explains](https://noirlab.edu/public/education/constellations/lyra/). The Ring Nebula (M57), a planetary nebula, is a classic small-telescope target here. Cygnus, named for the Greek word for swan, is also called the Northern Cross for its shape; its brightest star, Deneb, and second-brightest, Albireo, a striking color-contrast double star, anchor a stretch of Milky Way rich with nebulae, including the North America Nebula and the Veil Nebula supernova remnant, [per NOIRLab](https://noirlab.edu/public/education/constellations/cygnus/). ## Fall constellations (September to November) **Andromeda, the Chained Princess.** Andromeda represents the daughter of Cepheus and Cassiopeia, both nearby constellations in the same corner of sky, and is best viewed on fall evenings from the Northern Hemisphere, [NOIRLab notes](https://noirlab.edu/public/education/constellations/andromeda/). Its main draw is the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), the largest galaxy in our Local Group and, from a genuinely dark site, visible to the naked eye as a faint smudge, with two companion galaxies, M32 and M110, nearby. **Cassiopeia, the Queen.** In Greek mythology Cassiopeia is Andromeda's mother, and her constellation's five brightest stars form an unmistakable \"W\" or \"M\" shape, [NOIRLab explains](https://noirlab.edu/public/education/constellations/cassiopeia/). It sits in the Milky Way's winter band, so binoculars turned on it reveal open clusters like M52 and NGC 457 (nicknamed the \"ET Cluster\"). Cassiopeia also hosted a supernova bright enough to see with the naked eye in 1572, one of only a handful of naked-eye supernovae recorded in history, per the same source. ## Circumpolar constellations you can see all year From most of the US and nearly all of Canada, Ursa Major, Cassiopeia, and Ursa Minor (home to Polaris) never fully set below the horizon; they simply wheel around the North Star through the night and the year, lower in autumn evenings and higher in spring, a pattern [EarthSky's guide to circumpolar stars](https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/what-are-circumpolar-stars/) lays out in detail. The farther north you are, from the Great Lakes and New England up through the Prairie provinces, Quebec, and the territories, the larger that never-sets zone gets, and the earlier in the evening these constellations become visible. ## Best dark-sky spots to actually see the faint ones The Milky Way's star clusters and nebulae listed above, and faint stars in Scorpius and Sagittarius especially, wash out fast under light pollution. Certified dark-sky sites give the best odds: [Cherry Springs State Park in Pennsylvania](https://darksky.org/places/cherry-springs-state-park-dark-sky-park/), [Great Basin National Park in Nevada](https://darksky.org/places/great-basin-national-park-dark-sky-park/), [Death Valley National Park in California](https://darksky.org/places/death-valley-national-park-dark-sky-park/), and [Big Bend National Park in Texas](https://darksky.org/places/big-bend-national-park-dark-sky-park/) are all certified International Dark Sky Places. In Canada, the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada maintains its own network of [Dark-Sky Preserves](https://rasc.ca/lpa/dark-sky-sites), including Torrance Barrens in Ontario's Muskoka region. Browse more options by state and province in our [dark sky places directory](/places), and see the full list of certified parks in [Dark Sky Parks in the US and Canada](/dark-sky-parks). Timing matters as much as location: a bright Moon washes out the same faint stars and nebulae that light pollution does, so plan faint-object hunting (the Pleiades, M31, the Ring Nebula) around the new Moon and the days just before or after it, [EarthSky recommends](https://earthsky.org/tonight/what-moon-phase-is-best-for-stargazing/); check exact dates in our [moon phases guide](/moon-phases). Give your eyes 20 to 30 minutes away from bright screens and lights to fully dark-adapt before you start hunting for the fainter clusters and galaxies on this list, guidance echoed in [NASA's own skywatching tips](https://science.nasa.gov/skywatching/tips-guides/). ## Quick answers **What constellations can I see tonight?** It depends on the season and your latitude: use the table above to find which of the year's four seasonal groups is currently in the evening sky, then check Ursa Major, Cassiopeia, and Ursa Minor, which are visible year-round from most of the US and Canada. **How many constellations are there?** 88, as [officially recognized by the International Astronomical Union](https://iauarchive.eso.org/public/themes/constellations/) since 1922, with final boundaries set in 1930. **What's the easiest constellation to find?** Most beginners start with the Big Dipper (in Ursa Major) or Orion's Belt, since both are bright, distinctive, and visible for much of the year from North America, and both work as pointers to other constellations, [NASA notes](https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/what-is-the-north-star-and-how-do-you-find-it/). **What season is Orion visible?** Orion is a winter constellation for Northern Hemisphere observers, best seen from December through February in the evening sky, though it's also visible late at night in the fall and early morning in spring, since it sits near the celestial equator, [per NOIRLab](https://noirlab.edu/public/education/constellations/orion/). **How do I find the North Star?** Locate the Big Dipper's bowl, then follow the two stars on the outer edge of the bowl (Dubhe and Merak) about five times their separation; they point almost directly at Polaris, [NASA explains](https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/what-is-the-north-star-and-how-do-you-find-it/). **What's a zodiac constellation versus a regular one?** All 88 constellations, including the 12 zodiac ones, are the same kind of astronomical object; the zodiac group is simply the set that lies along the Sun's apparent yearly path (the ecliptic). Astrology assigns those 12 predictive meaning, but that practice \"is not based on scientific evidence,\" [as NASA Space Place puts it](https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/constellations/en/), separate from the astronomy in this guide. For a broader entry point into reading the night sky, start with our [stargazing for beginners guide](/stargazing-for-beginners), browse upcoming meteor showers and eclipses in [our events calendar](/events), or bring kids along with the activities in [our kids section](/kids).",
        "hero_image": "/images/constellations.webp",
        "category": "learn",
        "published_at": "2026-09-23T00:00:00.000Z",
        "updated_at": "2026-09-23T00:00:00.000Z",
        "sources_json": "[\"https://iauarchive.eso.org/public/themes/constellations/\",\"https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/constellations/en/\",\"https://science.nasa.gov/skywatching/tips-guides/\",\"https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/what-is-the-north-star-and-how-do-you-find-it/\",\"https://noirlab.edu/public/education/constellations/\",\"https://noirlab.edu/public/news/noirlab2430/\",\"https://noirlab.edu/public/education/constellations/orion/\",\"https://noirlab.edu/public/education/constellations/ursa-major/\",\"https://noirlab.edu/public/education/constellations/cassiopeia/\",\"https://noirlab.edu/public/education/constellations/lyra/\",\"https://noirlab.edu/public/education/constellations/cygnus/\",\"https://noirlab.edu/public/education/constellations/scorpius/\",\"https://noirlab.edu/public/education/constellations/sagittarius/\",\"https://noirlab.edu/public/education/constellations/leo/\",\"https://noirlab.edu/public/education/constellations/taurus/\",\"https://noirlab.edu/public/education/constellations/gemini/\",\"https://noirlab.edu/public/education/constellations/andromeda/\",\"https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/what-are-circumpolar-stars/\",\"https://earthsky.org/favorite-star-patterns/pleiades-star-cluster-enjoys-worldwide-renown/\",\"https://globeatnight.org/constellation/leo/\",\"https://earthsky.org/tonight/what-moon-phase-is-best-for-stargazing/\",\"https://darksky.org/places/cherry-springs-state-park-dark-sky-park/\",\"https://darksky.org/places/great-basin-national-park-dark-sky-park/\",\"https://darksky.org/places/death-valley-national-park-dark-sky-park/\",\"https://darksky.org/places/big-bend-national-park-dark-sky-park/\",\"https://rasc.ca/lpa/dark-sky-sites\"]",
        "hero_alt": "Star trails and the winter constellations, including Orion, over a dark rural sky."
      },
      {
        "slug": "meteor-showers",
        "title": "Meteor Shower Calendar 2026-2027: Every Peak Date",
        "description": "Every major meteor shower, October 2026 to 2027: peak dates, ZHR, moon conditions, radiants explained, and the best US and Canada dark-sky spots to watch.",
        "body_md": "The next major meteor shower is the Orionids, peaking the night of October 21 to 22, 2026, and from there a full shower runs through the Geminids, Quadrantids, Lyrids, Eta Aquariids, and Perseids into December 2027. Some years favor watching, and some years the Moon washes almost everything out: the [American Meteor Society (AMS)](https://amsmeteors.org/meteor-showers/meteor-shower-calendar/) and the [International Meteor Organization (IMO)](https://www.imo.net/) publish the official peak dates and rates, and this calendar overlays each one against the real Moon phase for 2026 and 2027 so you know which nights are actually worth losing sleep over. ## Every major meteor shower, October 2026 to December 2027 Meteors are visible on ordinary clear nights too, but a shower is when Earth crosses a dense lane of comet or asteroid debris and the rate spikes for a night or two around a predictable peak, a pattern the [AMS meteor shower calendar](https://amsmeteors.org/meteor-showers/meteor-shower-calendar/) tracks every year. \"ZHR\" below is the zenithal hourly rate quoted by AMS and IMO (explained in the next section); the verdict column adjusts that for the real Moon each year, using lunar data from the [full moon calendar](https://www.cyclecalcs.com/full-moon-calendar.html). | Shower | Peak night | ZHR (ideal) | Radiant / parent body | Moon in 2026-27 | Verdict |\n|---|---|---|---|---|---|\n| Orionids | Oct 21 to 22, 2026 | 10 to 20/hr | Orion, debris of Halley's Comet | Waxing gibbous, 5 days from full | Washed out after moonrise |\n| Leonids | Nov 17 to 18, 2026 | 10 to 15/hr | Leo, Comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle | Waxing crescent, sets before midnight | Good, dark after moonset |\n| Geminids | Dec 13 to 14, 2026 | 120 to 150/hr | Gemini, asteroid 3200 Phaethon | Thin waxing crescent, sets early evening | Excellent, best of this window |\n| Ursids | Dec 22 to 23, 2026 | 5 to 10/hr | Ursa Minor, Comet 8P/Tuttle | Bright, 2 days before full | Poor, minor shower washed out |\n| Quadrantids | Jan 3 to 4, 2027 | up to 120/hr | Boötes | Thin waning crescent, 4 days from new | Excellent, but a very short peak |\n| Lyrids | Apr 21 to 22, 2027 | 15 to 20/hr | Lyra, Comet Thatcher | Nearly full (1 day after full Pink Moon) | Poor, only fireballs visible |\n| Eta Aquariids | May 6 to 7, 2027 | 10 to 30/hr (US/Canada) | Aquarius, debris of Halley's Comet | New Moon | Excellent, dark skies all night |\n| Perseids | Aug 12 to 13, 2027 | 50 to 100/hr | Perseus, Comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle | Bright waxing gibbous, up most of the night | Fair, watch right after dusk |\n| Orionids | Oct 21 to 22, 2027 | 10 to 20/hr | Orion, debris of Halley's Comet | Waning gibbous, rises mid-evening | Fair, best right after dark |\n| Leonids | Nov 17 to 18, 2027 | 10 to 15/hr | Leo, Comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle | Waning gibbous, days past full | Poor, moon up most of the night |\n| Geminids | Dec 14, 2027 | 120 to 150/hr | Gemini, asteroid 3200 Phaethon | Full Cold Moon, same night | Poor, only the brightest streaks |\n| Ursids | Dec 22 to 23, 2027 | 5 to 10/hr | Ursa Minor, Comet 8P/Tuttle | Thin waning crescent | Good, dark skies for a minor shower | All peak dates, rates and Moon phase calls above come from the [AMS meteor shower calendar](https://amsmeteors.org/meteor-showers/meteor-shower-calendar/), the [IMO](https://www.imo.net/) (whose full [2027 shower calendar PDF](https://www.imo.net/ShCal27s.pdf) has the detailed scientific tables), and the [full moon calendar](https://www.cyclecalcs.com/full-moon-calendar.html). Real skies also depend on your latitude and local weather, so check our [moon phase tool](/moon-phases) and [Nightly News](/nightly-news) closer to any given date for a fresher, night-of read. ## What a radiant actually is Every meteor in a given shower appears to streak away from roughly the same point in the sky, called the radiant, because the meteoroids are traveling on near-parallel paths through space and perspective makes them appear to diverge from a single point, the same way parallel highway lines seem to converge toward a vanishing point. Showers are named for the constellation that sits closest to that point: the Leonids radiate from Leo, the Perseids from Perseus, the Geminids from Gemini, and the Quadrantids from the obsolete constellation Quadrans Muralis, now inside Boötes, near the handle of the Big Dipper. The debris itself comes from a \"parent body,\" almost always a comet and occasionally an asteroid, that has shed dust and rock along its orbit over thousands of years, and Earth's own orbit crosses that trail at the same time every year, which is why each shower has such a predictable date. NASA notes that showers occur \"as Earth passes through the trail of dusty debris left by a comet and, in a few cases, asteroids,\" and are usually named for the star or constellation nearest to where they appear to originate, exactly the radiant effect described above, [according to NASA](https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/meteors-meteorites/meteor-showers/). The Geminids are the odd one out among the majors: their parent is the rocky asteroid 3200 Phaethon rather than an icy comet, one reason they burn bright and are unusually reliable year to year, per the [AMS calendar](https://amsmeteors.org/meteor-showers/meteor-shower-calendar/). A higher radiant, well up from the horizon, means more of the sky is in view of the meteors' true paths, so showers are always better after the radiant constellation has climbed higher, typically well after dark or after midnight depending on the shower. ## ZHR versus what you will actually see The rates in the table above are the zenithal hourly rate, defined as the number of meteors a single observer would see in an hour of peak activity \"if the radiant was at the zenith\" (directly overhead) \"assuming... perfect seeing conditions,\" [per the technical definition](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zenithal_hourly_rate). That is a best-case, textbook number, not a promise. In practice the count you will actually see is nearly always lower, and it drops the closer the radiant sits to the horizon, since fewer meteor paths are above the horizon at all, [as the same source explains](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zenithal_hourly_rate). Three real-world factors cut a \"120 per hour\" Geminids peak down to what you will count with your own eyes on a given night: how high the radiant has climbed (worst right after it rises, best well after midnight), how much moonlight or light pollution is washing out faint meteors (our [dark-sky places directory](/places) and [dark sky parks guide](/dark-sky-parks) exist largely to solve this one), and plain luck, since meteors arrive in clusters, not evenly spaced. A rural observer under a genuinely dark sky, away from city glow, will typically see a meaningful fraction of the quoted ZHR; someone watching from a suburban backyard under a hazy, moonlit sky might see a tenth of that or less. That gap, more than the shower's name recognition, is the single biggest variable amateur skywatchers miss, which is exactly why the Moon column in the calendar above matters as much as the peak date itself. ## How to actually watch (no telescope needed) Meteor showers are a naked-eye event, and a telescope or even binoculars actively hurt you here by narrowing your field of view to a tiny patch of sky; the whole point is to see the widest possible swath so you catch meteors wherever they streak. Give your eyes 20 to 30 minutes to fully adapt to the dark, since your night vision keeps improving well past the point most people give up and go back to their phones (which reset it instantly). Lie back in a reclining chair or on a blanket so you can comfortably watch the whole sky rather than craning your neck at one patch, dress warmer than you think you need to (most of these peaks are on cold nights), and bring snacks and a thermos, since the best rates almost always come well after midnight when your body wants to be asleep. Location matters more than gear. Get as far from artificial light as you safely can; even a bright porch light nearby can cost you the faintest third of the meteors, which is one reason a certified [dark sky park](/dark-sky-parks) beats a backyard for a real shower night. Check the Moon phase for your date on our [moon phase tool](/moon-phases), since a bright Moon above the horizon does the same damage as a streetlight, and plan to watch during the Moon-free hours the calendar above calls out for each shower. If you are introducing kids to their first meteor shower, our [stargazing for beginners guide](/stargazing-for-beginners) has a simpler starter checklist, and learning a few [constellations](/constellations) ahead of time, especially the shower's own radiant constellation, makes the whole night click into place once you spot the pattern the meteors are radiating from. ## Best US and Canada dark-sky spots by season Pairing a shower with a genuinely dark park roughly triples what you will see over a city or suburban yard, so here is where to go for each season in this calendar, cross-referenced with our full [dark sky parks directory](/places). **Fall (Orionids, Leonids):** Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona keeps its skies dark enough that the National Park Service promotes \"half the park is after dark\" to its roughly six million annual visitors, [per DarkSky International's listing](https://darksky.org/places/grand-canyon-national-park-dark-sky-park/), and clear, cooling October and November nights on the rim suit both Orionids and Leonids well. On the Canadian side, Jasper National Park in Alberta, one of the world's largest Dark-Sky Preserves, runs its own Jasper Dark Sky Festival every October, timing public stargazing to this exact window, [according to background on the park](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jasper_National_Park). Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta and its US twin, Glacier National Park in Montana, were certified together as the world's first trans-boundary International Dark Sky Park and make a good binational fall stop for either country's side of the border, [per DarkSky International](https://darksky.org/places/waterton-glacier-international-peace-park-dark-sky-park/). **Winter (Geminids, Ursids, Quadrantids):** Big Bend National Park in Texas offers a rare mild-winter desert sky for the December and January showers, in the \"Big Bend\" of the Rio Grande along the Mexican border, [per DarkSky International](https://darksky.org/places/big-bend-national-park-dark-sky-park/). Death Valley National Park in California, one of the largest dark sky parks in the US, is another low-elevation, snow-free winter option for the Geminids and Quadrantids, [per DarkSky International](https://darksky.org/places/death-valley-national-park-dark-sky-park/). Cherry Springs State Park in Pennsylvania, open year-round with 60 to 85 nights of ideal viewing conditions annually, is the classic East Coast pick if you can handle the cold, [per DarkSky International](https://darksky.org/places/cherry-springs-state-park-dark-sky-park/). In Quebec, the Mont-Mégantic International Dark Sky Reserve, the world's first, pairs its ASTROLab observatory with strict regional lighting rules and welcomes winter stargazers for the Geminids and Ursids, [per DarkSky International](https://darksky.org/places/mont-megantic-dark-sky-reserve/). **Spring (Lyrids, Eta Aquariids):** Enchanted Rock State Natural Area in Texas has hosted public star parties since 2011 and its Hill Country location and lower southern latitude help with the low-radiant Eta Aquariids, [per DarkSky International](https://darksky.org/places/enchanted-rock-state-natural-area-dark-sky-park/). Great Basin National Park in Nevada, high and dry between the Sierra Nevada and the Wasatch Range, is a strong pick for the Lyrids, [per DarkSky International](https://darksky.org/places/great-basin-national-park-dark-sky-park/). In Saskatchewan, Grasslands National Park protects native prairie under some of the darkest, least light-polluted skies in Canada, worth the trip once spring travel opens up, [per background on the park](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grasslands_National_Park). **Summer (Perseids):** Cherry Springs State Park in Pennsylvania draws crowds for the Perseids specifically, and Voyageurs National Park in Minnesota explicitly promotes itself for \"the spectacular Aurora Borealis, meteor showers, stargazing, and night sky programs,\" making it a strong double booking if the aurora is also active that week, [per DarkSky International](https://darksky.org/places/voyageurs-national-park-dark-sky-park/); check our [northern lights guide](/northern-lights) before you go. North of the border, Waterton Lakes in Alberta was Canada's first certified International Dark Sky Park and works well for an August trip, [per DarkSky International's Canada listing](https://darksky.org/locations/canada/). ## Quick answers **What is the best meteor shower of the year?** The Geminids in December are normally the strongest, with a zenithal hourly rate of 120 to 150 per hour, [per the AMS calendar](https://amsmeteors.org/meteor-showers/meteor-shower-calendar/), but check the Moon column in the table above first: the December 2027 Geminids peak the same night as a full Moon and will be badly washed out, while December 2026's Geminids has almost no Moon interference and is the best single night in this entire calendar. **When is the next meteor shower?** As of this writing, on September 23, 2026, the next shower is the Orionids, peaking overnight October 21 to 22, 2026, [per the AMS calendar](https://amsmeteors.org/meteor-showers/meteor-shower-calendar/); for the freshest \"tonight\" read, check [Nightly News](/nightly-news). **How many meteors per hour will I actually see?** Take the ZHR from the table, then discount heavily for your radiant's height above the horizon, any Moon or city light, and your own limiting magnitude; a dark rural sky under favorable Moon conditions typically shows a meaningful share of the quoted ZHR, while a light-polluted or moonlit sky can cut that by 90 percent or more, [per the technical ZHR explanation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zenithal_hourly_rate). **Do I need a telescope for meteor showers?** No. Meteors move too fast and cover too much sky for a telescope or binoculars to help; your unaided, dark-adapted eyes scanning the widest possible patch of sky are the best tool you have. **What causes a meteor shower?** Earth passing through a trail of dusty debris shed by a comet, or occasionally an asteroid, along its orbit, [per NASA](https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/meteors-meteorites/meteor-showers/); the debris burns up in the atmosphere and the shower is named for the constellation nearest the point the meteors appear to radiate from. **Which of these showers is visible from Canada?** All twelve showers in this calendar are visible throughout Canada, though the Eta Aquariids' low southern radiant means far fewer meteors from Canadian latitudes than from the southern US, and far-northern locations get extra help from long, dark nights around the December and January showers; see our [dark sky laws](/dark-sky-laws) guide for why some Canadian towns keep their skies this dark in the first place.",
        "hero_image": "/images/meteor-showers.webp",
        "category": "events",
        "published_at": "2026-09-23",
        "updated_at": "2026-09-23",
        "sources_json": "[\"https://amsmeteors.org/meteor-showers/meteor-shower-calendar/\",\"https://www.imo.net/\",\"https://www.imo.net/ShCal27s.pdf\",\"https://www.cyclecalcs.com/full-moon-calendar.html\",\"https://www.farmersalmanac.com/full-moon-dates-and-times\",\"https://www.cyclecalcs.com/seasons/\",\"https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/meteors-meteorites/meteor-showers/\",\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zenithal_hourly_rate\",\"https://darksky.org/places/grand-canyon-national-park-dark-sky-park/\",\"https://darksky.org/places/waterton-glacier-international-peace-park-dark-sky-park/\",\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jasper_National_Park\",\"https://darksky.org/places/big-bend-national-park-dark-sky-park/\",\"https://darksky.org/places/death-valley-national-park-dark-sky-park/\",\"https://darksky.org/places/cherry-springs-state-park-dark-sky-park/\",\"https://darksky.org/places/mont-megantic-dark-sky-reserve/\",\"https://darksky.org/places/enchanted-rock-state-natural-area-dark-sky-park/\",\"https://darksky.org/places/great-basin-national-park-dark-sky-park/\",\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grasslands_National_Park\",\"https://darksky.org/places/voyageurs-national-park-dark-sky-park/\",\"https://darksky.org/locations/canada/\"]",
        "hero_alt": "A bright meteor streaking across a star-filled night sky above a silhouetted dark-sky landscape"
      }
    ],
    "upcomingEvents": [
      {
        "id": "aurora-outlook-2026-2028",
        "date": "2026-09-24",
        "end_date": "2028-12-31",
        "time_utc": null,
        "type": "other",
        "title": "Aurora Outlook: Solar Cycle 25 Decline",
        "visibility": "Northern US states and all of Canada; strong geomagnetic storms can push visibility as far south as the mid-latitude US.",
        "details": "NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center places Solar Cycle 25 maximum around July 2025 (plus or minus eight months), meaning elevated solar activity and a good chance of aurora-producing storms continues into 2026 and 2027 before gradually declining through 2028.",
        "best_viewing_tip": "Check the NOAA SWPC 3-day aurora forecast and Kp index before a trip, and get away from city lights with a clear view north.",
        "sources_json": "[\"https://www.spaceweather.gov/news/solar-cycle-25-forecast-update\",\"https://www.spaceweather.gov/communities/aurora-dashboard-experimental\"]"
      },
      {
        "id": "planet-saturn-opposition-2026",
        "date": "2026-10-04",
        "end_date": null,
        "time_utc": null,
        "type": "planet",
        "title": "Saturn at Opposition",
        "visibility": "Visible throughout the US and Canada, up all night.",
        "details": "Saturn is opposite the Sun in our sky and at its closest and brightest for the year, rising at sunset and visible all night.",
        "best_viewing_tip": "A telescope will show Saturn's rings clearly; even binoculars reveal it as a steady, non-twinkling point of light.",
        "sources_json": "[\"https://lyncean.education/almanac/oppositions/\"]"
      },
      {
        "id": "meteor-orionids-2026",
        "date": "2026-10-21",
        "end_date": null,
        "time_utc": null,
        "type": "meteor-shower",
        "title": "Orionids Meteor Shower Peak 2026",
        "visibility": "Visible throughout the US and Canada, best after midnight from a dark, rural sky.",
        "details": "The Orionids, debris from Halley's Comet, typically produce 10-20 meteors per hour at their peak, though a waxing gibbous Moon (about five days from full) will wash out fainter meteors this year.",
        "best_viewing_tip": "Watch after moonset or shield your eyes from the Moon's glare, and look toward Orion in the pre-dawn sky for the best rates.",
        "sources_json": "[\"https://amsmeteors.org/meteor-showers/meteor-shower-calendar/\",\"https://www.cyclecalcs.com/full-moon-calendar.html\"]"
      },
      {
        "id": "full-moon-2026-10-26",
        "date": "2026-10-26",
        "end_date": null,
        "time_utc": null,
        "type": "full-moon",
        "title": "Hunter's Moon (2026-10-26)",
        "visibility": "Visible throughout the US and Canada, weather permitting, rising around sunset.",
        "details": "The Hunter's Moon is the traditional name for this month's full moon.",
        "best_viewing_tip": "Best viewed low on the horizon just after moonrise, when the Moon looks largest due to the well-known 'moon illusion.'",
        "sources_json": "[\"https://www.cyclecalcs.com/full-moon-calendar.html\",\"https://www.farmersalmanac.com/full-moon-dates-and-times\"]"
      },
      {
        "id": "meteor-leonids-2026",
        "date": "2026-11-17",
        "end_date": null,
        "time_utc": null,
        "type": "meteor-shower",
        "title": "Leonids Meteor Shower Peak 2026",
        "visibility": "Visible throughout the US and Canada, best in the hours after midnight.",
        "details": "The Leonids typically produce around 10-15 meteors per hour, with a waxing crescent-to-first-quarter Moon that sets before midnight, leaving the darkest, best-viewing hours moon-free.",
        "best_viewing_tip": "Wait until the Moon sets in the evening, then watch toward the constellation Leo after midnight.",
        "sources_json": "[\"https://amsmeteors.org/meteor-showers/meteor-shower-calendar/\",\"https://www.cyclecalcs.com/full-moon-calendar.html\"]"
      }
    ],
    "latestNews": [
      {
        "id": "2026-09-23-sun-news-solar-wind-gust-could-spark-auroras",
        "date": "2026-09-23",
        "slug": "sun-news-solar-wind-gust-could-spark-auroras",
        "headline": "Sun news: Solar wind gust could spark auroras",
        "editorial_note_md": "A stream of solar wind from a coronal hole is arriving at Earth and could trigger auroras today. This is exciting news for sky-watchers, as it means there's a chance to see the northern or southern lights dancing across the sky. Sky-watchers should look for aurora activity tonight, especially at higher latitudes.",
        "source_name": "EarthSky",
        "source_url": "https://earthsky.org/sun/sun-news-activity-solar-flare-cme-aurora-updates/",
        "topics_json": "[\"aurora and space weather\"]",
        "published_at": "2026-09-24T01:36:07.412Z"
      },
      {
        "id": "2026-09-23-a-new-report-from-europe-raises-serious-alarms-about-orbital-collisions",
        "date": "2026-09-23",
        "slug": "a-new-report-from-europe-raises-serious-alarms-about-orbital-collisions",
        "headline": "A new report from Europe raises serious alarms about orbital collisions",
        "editorial_note_md": "A new report from Europe raises concerns about orbital collisions, highlighting the risk of a cascading series of collisions in space. This is a crucial issue for sky-watchers to care about, as a cluttered orbit could impact the quality of astronomical observations and the safety of satellites used for stargazing and astronomy. Sky-watchers should be aware of the potential for increased satellite debris in orbit, which could affect the visibility of meteor showers and other celestial events.",
        "source_name": "Ars Technica (Space)",
        "source_url": "https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/09/there-are-now-17000-satellites-in-orbit-and-growing-should-we-be-concerned/",
        "topics_json": "[\"satellites and astronomy\"]",
        "published_at": "2026-09-24T01:36:06.068Z"
      },
      {
        "id": "2026-09-23-ethereal-space-awarded-noaa-sbem-task-order-1",
        "date": "2026-09-23",
        "slug": "ethereal-space-awarded-noaa-sbem-task-order-1",
        "headline": "Ethereal Space Awarded NOAA SBEM Task Order 1",
        "editorial_note_md": "Ethereal Space has been awarded Task Order 1 under NOAA's ProTech 2.0 Space-Based Environmental Monitoring program. This is exciting news for sky-watchers because it means there will be continued advancements in space-based environmental monitoring, which can lead to better understanding and prediction of celestial events. Sky-watchers can look forward to potential improvements in weather forecasting and space weather monitoring as a result of this task order.",
        "source_name": "SpaceNews",
        "source_url": "https://spacenews.com/ethereal-space-awarded-noaa-sbem-task-order-1/",
        "topics_json": "[\"NASA/ESA/CSA missions and funding\"]",
        "published_at": "2026-09-24T01:36:04.155Z"
      },
      {
        "id": "2026-09-23-shannon-lucid-s-record-setting-mission-aboard-mir",
        "date": "2026-09-23",
        "slug": "shannon-lucid-s-record-setting-mission-aboard-mir",
        "headline": "Shannon Lucid’s Record-Setting Mission Aboard Mir",
        "editorial_note_md": "Astronaut Shannon Lucid completed her record-setting mission aboard Russia's Mir Space Station on September 23, 1996. This historic event is notable for sky-watchers because it highlights the achievements of space exploration and the opportunities for scientific research in space. Lucid's work on the wheat plants in the Svet greenhouse demonstrates the potential for studying plant growth in microgravity environments. Sky-watchers can look up NASA's archives for more information on Lucid's mission and its contributions to our understanding of space and science.",
        "source_name": "NASA (all news)",
        "source_url": "https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/shannon-lucids-record-setting-mission-aboard-mir/",
        "topics_json": "[\"space travel\"]",
        "published_at": "2026-09-24T01:36:02.144Z"
      },
      {
        "id": "2026-09-23-nasa-s-hubble-telescope-reaches-milestone-looks-for-elusive-supernova",
        "date": "2026-09-23",
        "slug": "nasa-s-hubble-telescope-reaches-milestone-looks-for-elusive-supernova",
        "headline": "NASA’s Hubble Telescope Reaches Milestone, Looks for Elusive Supernova",
        "editorial_note_md": "NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has reached a milestone and is looking for the reappearance of supernova Athena in galaxy cluster MACS J0417. This event is significant for sky-watchers because it can help astronomers measure the expansion rate of the universe, providing valuable insights into the cosmos. The telescope's observations of the galaxy cluster, which acts as a gravitational lens, will be crucial in detecting the supernova's reappearance. Sky-watchers can look forward to learning more about the universe's expansion rate as NASA releases updates on the Hubble Space Telescope's findings.",
        "source_name": "NASA (all news)",
        "source_url": "https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/nasas-hubble-telescope-reaches-milestone-looks-for-elusive-supernova/",
        "topics_json": "[\"celestial events\"]",
        "published_at": "2026-09-24T01:35:59.550Z"
      }
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