By Karen Terrey

When I lived in the Rocky Mountains high on the Western slope of Colorado, I was thirty years younger than I am now. Many nights I would venture out to walk for miles in the dark with my Border Collie beneath a shining expanse of stars. One could get dizzy looking up at the white froth of the milky way spilling out above. 

Now when I walk my dog at nighttime along the streets of Truckee, I look up to seek the Big Dipper, and in December, my birthday month, Orion’s bright belt hanging above our downtown lit up for the holidays. Occasionally, I’ll see a bear wandering beneath the stars alongside me. While time and geography create change in our lives, the night sky is a record of both familiar certainty and the vast unknown, of seasonal change and astronomical phenomena.

Why is our view of the night sky—stars and planets and moons—so moving? What is significant about access, nightly, to our relevance within this solar system, this galaxy? And what would we be missing if, when we walked in the quiet dark of our neighborhoods, we could view above only a pale unmarked screen reflecting back the electric lights of human development?

Across the country, organizations such as the Smithsonian Institution with its “Lights Out: Recovering our Night Sky” exhibit are creating initiatives to educate on the significance of the night sky and to recover night skies above many towns and cities from light pollution. The movement to promote this perspective of the dark skies has reached Nevada County. 

This past year, the Dark Sky Initiative, a collaboration between the Town of Truckee, the City of Nevada City, the City of Grass Valley, the County of Nevada and our two California Cultural Districts, celebrated the value of dark skies through a photography contest and art exhibit installed at the Steve Randall Community Recreation Center in Truckee and Art in Public Spaces at the Rood Center in Nevada City. The “Don’t be Afraid of the Dark” movement will continue through 2025 with an educational awareness campaign throughout Nevada County about the impacts of light pollution and dark-sky-friendly practices. 

Watch for stargazing events, night hikes, and incentives for residents and businesses to incorporate dark-sky friendly lighting to protect our dark sky environment. Imagine dance performances and special theater events, night sky paintings and open mics celebrating the night sky. A county-wide art exhibition focused on Dark Skies will combine literary and visual arts. 

The official campaign opening reception will be held during the week of International Dark Sky Week of April 21-28, 2025. This exciting initiative coincides with Earth Day, Global Astronomy Month (April), and National Poetry Month, celebrated here in Nevada County with the Sierra Poetry Festival.

Currently, one of the best spots for dark skies observations by the naked eye is the high country in the Southern Sierra Nevada. More and more, people travel as ‘star tourists’ to special destinations across the country to view the night sky. Through collaboration, education and community engagement, the night skies over our towns can be secured in recognition of our unique nocturnal environment. The arts have an important role to play in illuminating the beauty of the dark. Our starry skies will be valued for the long term as an important resource for all of our community–the people, plants and animals coexisting under the stars.