Time To Celebrate Nantucket's Dark Skies

To the editor: International Dark Sky Week, April 13-20 this year, is a time to join people all over the world in celebrating the beauty and wonder of starry nights — and to reflect on how light pollution is threatening this important part of Nantucket’s heritage and what each of us can do to help.

We urge everyone to:

Look up! Find a place away from artificial lights on a cloudless night and reconnect with the vastness above. A perfect place and time to do this — if the weather cooperates — is at the Community Stargazing at Altar Rock event on Thursday April 16, sponsored by the Maria Mitchell Association, the Nantucket Conservation Foundation, and Nantucket Lights. See any of their websites for details and the link for registering.

Learn about all the many ways that light pollution is harmful. A Google search for “light pollution” will lead you to numerous news articles, websites, and books that are sure to inspire you to join the dark sky movement. As you’ll see, excessive or poorly designed outdoor lighting can have serious consequences for both people and wildlife.

Assess your own outdoor lighting. Is it dark sky friendly? Find out by reading the Nantucket Lights Outdoor Lighting Guide, available for free on our website. It has detailed guidance for complying with Nantucket’s outdoor lighting bylaw (amended in 2023) as well as for going beyond what’s required by the bylaw to be as dark sky friendly as possible. Small changes can make a big difference!

Help educate and inspire others. Encourage your neighbors and friends to do all of the above. To have meaningful change, we need everyone in the community to do their part to reduce light pollution.

Support dark sky preservation efforts. Join the Nantucket Lights email distribution list to get updates and calls to action. Make a tax-deductible donation so we can continue to raise awareness about light pollution and advocate for environmentally responsible outdoor lighting across the island.

Unlike other types of pollution, light pollution is easy to fix. It just means being more mindful about our outdoor lighting choices. We can do this, Nantucket!

Gail Walker
Founder and President, Nantucket Lights
nantucketlights.org