Is Seeing the Stars a Financial Luxury?

Author: Lindsay DeMarchi
Editor: Ken Walczak

A school bus pulls into a lampless parking lot after nightfall, its windows glowing red. It is the first time, for many of these young Chicagoans, they have been this far from the lights of their home. But they are about to experience something much more dramatic than a field trip: the night. For most, if not all, “night time” was never more than a social tradition, an agreed upon time simply delegated to sleep. Otherwise, their experience has been one of a false perpetual day, under the glow of artificial light.

If you have the means to sleep with blackout curtains or a face mask, chances are you too don’t truly understand day and night the way our ancestors did, and maybe even far less than our own parents’ childhoods. We are losing the night inches at a time, and now, for the young generation, it is a loss they have not had the comparison to feel.

Students who are part of the Adler planetarium’s Far Horizons program use instruments to measure light pollution quantitatively; and they’ve traveled to the Indiana Dunes east of the city to measure the darkness of the sky. It’s an hour drive, and the students have adjusted their eyes preemptively with softer red light. For many, it is the first time they will see the stars. 

I asked Far Horizons Senior Manager Ken Walczak if there are opportunities from within the city to experience the night as it should be. His answer was clear:

 “No.” 

In fact, he shared that one participant, upon returning home, excitedly told her mother of the serenity and darkness she witnessed. Her mother didn’t believe her, that there was a place without lights. 

“They couldn't even conceive of it… one of the kids just cried. She’d never seen so many stars,” added Ken about the experience. 

Nowadays, there is an increasing trend called “astrotourism” places that provide access to dark skies or protected land without lights, such as parks, orchards that welcome the public to experience what was once in their backyard. Of course, this is all for a price. On the one hand, astrotourism highlights the need to protect the night sky. On the other hand, it sets the tone that one must pay for beauty, nature, and the stars with money and time. 

Astrotourism is proliferating, as places across the country are hopping on the trend, even covered by Forbes and USA Today as viable vacation plans. It highlights, too, the disparity between experiencing the sky where we live, and needing to travel elsewhere to see it, such as to remote places like the Southwest, Alaska or New Zealand. As of 2016, nearly 99% of those in the United States live under skyglow-tainted skies. It’s no wonder people feel the need to travel to experience darkness or believe it simply no longer exists.

For most Chicago residents, the stars are a reality quite difficult to obtain and experience. Poorer neighborhoods are flooded with light in a misguided attempt to deter crime (such as those covered in the documentary Omnipresence, about similar neighborhoods in New York City). 

Ken walked me through a map of light pollution, and pointed out where the closest unadulterated night skies are from Chicago (reproduced below). This was located about 350 miles away from Chicago in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan: a 6 hour drive. To experience this sky, an individual would need to afford taking time off work, driving or renting a car, and paying for gas and lodging – quite difficult to accomplish, even if one has a driver’s license. 

A map of light pollution surrounding Chicago. To see the Milky Way, one must be in a green shaded region or darker. The closest region to Chicago unaffected by light pollution is located about 350 miles north. Data: The new world atlas of artificial night sky brightness, Falchi, et al., 2016.

I asked Ken if it was possible in an urban environment to experience the night sky, particularly in Chicago. He paused for a moment, and thoughtfully replied, “Sky? No… Unless they went to a planetarium.” But, even planetariums can have financial barriers, such as travel to the peninsula on which the Adler sits. In recognition of this hurdle, the Far Horizons program supplies free CTA passes to its student participants.

But he followed his answer with a glint of optimism, highlighting the importance of the Palos Reserves, an internationally designated Urban Night Sky Place with skies about 1.5 magnitudes darker than within the city and located about 30 mins away from downtown Chicago. Even there, the night is not “truly” dark, but it is a taste for what lies beyond. 

“You won’t get a pristine night sky, but you will get what a night should be like, without lights.” The 7,000 acre preserve has only a handful of lights, all of which are DarkSky approved to protect the nighttime environment.

The Indiana Dunes at night, facing Chicago (left) and facing away from Chicago (right). Photo courtesy of Ken Walczak.

And so the dichotomy becomes stark, laid bare. For urban residents to enjoy the night sky, many have little choice but to lean into the light and experience stars on a screen. Otherwise,  the experience of a true sky is a costly vacation away, inching away one bulb at a time, unless we address our use of light at night.