March 8, 2024
April 2-8 is International Dark Sky Week, and Alpine is celebrating with events on April 5 & 6, just prior to the Main Celestial Event: April 8’s total eclipse.
Chris and Heather talk with McDonald Observatory’s Stephen Hummel about the eclipse, the Dark Skies Celebration events, and the latest on the Greater Big Bend International Dark Sky Reserve!
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Transcript for “Alpine Dark Skies Celebration!”:
Chris Ruggia
Hello, welcome, and thank you for joining us again for Heart of the Big Bend.
This is a podcast and radio show coming to you every other week about visiting the beautiful Big Bend of Texas. Specifically, we will cover what’s happening in Alpine, an incredibly friendly small town nestled in a desert mountain valley at the heart of the Big Bend region. With easy day trips from Alpine, you can take in everything this amazing region has to offer.
I’m Chris Ruggia, Director of Tourism for the City of Alpine, and my teammate Heather Yadon’s with us again today.
Hey, Heather.
Heather Yadon
Hello, welcome everyone.
Chris R
And we’re talking about dark skies.
So we have Stephen Hummel from the McDonald Observatory.
Hey, Stephen.
Stephen Hummel
Howdy everyone.
Chris R
Thank you so much for joining us.
And so we’re going to talk a little bit about the Greater Big Bend International Dark Sky Reserve.
But specifically, we’re going to be talking about International Dark Sky Week at the start of April and some events that are happening in and around the area.
First off, Steven, I’m going to point folks back to two previous podcast episodes because we did one with Bill Wren, your predecessor, before the reserve began.
And then we talked to you again right after the reserve was designated.
Stephen H
That’s right. And it was back in 2022, if you can believe it.
Chris R
I know! And so tell folks a little bit who haven’t heard those episodes yet, though you should go back and listen.
Tell us briefly, what is the Greater Big Bend International Dark Sky Reserve?
Stephen H
Yeah, that’s right.
So back in 2022, the entire region, that’s Jeff Davis, Brewster, Presidio County, a little bit around Balmorhea and then across the river into Mexico.
And three protected lands was designated by Dark Sky International as the Greater Big Bend International Dark Sky Reserve.
That’s over 15,000 square miles, which makes it the largest area in the entire world that has this kind of designation.
And what that means is that there are active efforts to preserve the night sky.
Not just that the skies are dark, and not just cuz it’s rural, but because cities like Alpine and other communities in the area are taking active efforts to keep the skies dark using better lighting.
Chris R
Yeah. And you’re kind of the linchpin there as far as I could see.
Yeah, you’re you’re.
Heather Y
Doing the work.
Chris R
Yeah if there’s any, you’re driving around Big Bend and you see somebody really examining a light really closely at night, it’s probably Steven assessing the quality of that light.
Stephen H
Yeah, there’s a a thing in my brain where I every single light I see, I just, I have to look at it. Is that one good or is that one bad?
And yeah, what that really means in practice is, you know, it’s not no light.
We’re not.
We’re not about advocating for living in darkness.
We’re about using light responsibly. So that means aiming lights down so the light stays on the ground.
What you’re actually trying to see, you know, last time I checked, crime happens on the ground, not in the sky.
Chris R
Opportunity there, but we’ll get, we’ll get there.
Stephen H
Yeah, yeah. Expanding markets for criminals. Haha!
Using a more amber color is also important. The more amber it is, the less it scatters in the air, the less it impacts wildlife and our own health using an intensity or amount of light that’s appropriate and the simplest thing if you don’t need it.
Heather Y
Turn it off!
Stephen H
Turn it off, yeah.
Chris R
So Alpine and all the other communities in in the area put those rules basically into ordinances so that those are required. And so we’re now in a period of education getting ready for the time when that actually starts getting enforced.
Stephen H
Yeah so the goal is we’re trying to get, you know, most of all the rest of the city owned lights and the majority of the commercial properties to, you know, follow these principles by 2026, it’ll be five years after the Alpine adopted the ordinance. That’s the goal.
Heather Y
And if you are a business that is practicing proper lighting, you can go on to the McDonald’s observatory website and you can tell them that hey, I think I have good lighting and come check it out and you can get certified which the Alpine Visitor Center is Dark Sky Certified.
Stephen came out and checked out the visitor center and I had to remove some of the decorative Edison lighting that was like too close to the edge and other than that, we had the proper lighting so everybody can check it out and see what we’re talking about. We had our sconces are pointing down towards the ground and we have the right light bulbs and that was something that we did when we put in the new pavilion. We were the city’s first new build after the ordinance passed, so we had to make sure that we had the proper lighting and we are now Dark Sky certified. We have our sticker in our window.
Stephen H
Yeah if you know of a business or you own a business that follows principles, yeah, let us know. Go on our website and apply.
Chris R
And then we can all promote you for for your good behavior
Stephen H
Exactly.
Chris R
So coming up at the start of April is International Dark Sky Week. Is that the same entity that that designates the Dark Sky places?
Stephen H
Dark Sky International, Yeah, they they are the nonprofit that designates places. Also they have this annual week, it’s always the new moon in April. So that falls the roughly the first week of of April and ends on the new moon, which is April 8th. If you know anything about eclipses, you know they always have to fall on a new moon. So that includes April 8th, the day of the total solar eclipse across much of Texas and the US.
Chris R
Right. Well, Heather, what’s happening in Alpine for International Dark Sky Week? This is the first, we haven’t done a specific event before.
Heather Y
We’re actually pretty excited because a lot of times the International Dark Sky Week stuff is celebrated up at the observatory and the observatory is going to be really busy with the eclipse, so that is giving us a chance to do some stuff right here in Alpine this year. So the 5th and the 6th we’re going to have star party stargazing at Kokernot Park led by Stephen, he’s going to give us a walk through the stars on Friday and Saturday night.
That’ll be in the soccer field area back behind like the pool, so away from the street lights that are there along Fighting Bucks Ave. That’ll start at dark. People need to bring blankets, chairs to sit on and we will have some telescopes. He’ll give a walk through the stars and then there’ll be some telescopes that’ll be set up that will show people specific things.
Am I correct in that?
Stephen H
Yes.
Heather Y
OK, I don’t want to give wrong information because I’m definitely not the expert of the stars. We’re helping to put on the event, but Stephen will be doing all of the star talking because that is not my field of expertise at all.
And then on Saturday the 6th at the Visitor Center from 1:00 to 4:00, we’re going to have the information about the dark sky light ordinance that was passed here in Alpine.
We’re going to have the information about proper lighting, we’re going to have information from McDonald’s Observatory about the right kind of fixtures that you can buy, some examples.
Miss Mary Beth from the library is going to be doing some children’s programming on light pollution and dark skies. She’s going to have at 2:00 and out of this world story time that will start, and then there will be some games for kids a craft – paint your favorite nebula.
That will all be on Saturday the 6th and we’ll also have information about Lights Out because it actually has already started.
Lights Out is the annual campaign for everyone to turn their lights out to help the migrating birds. A billion, I think it’s a billion birds pass through Texas to migrate every fall and spring. So we’re actually just at the start of that. It actually starts May 1st, but the peak time is April 22nd through May 16th.
Chris R
And you may think, what is my porch light have to do with the migrating bird, but in fact, they actually do use the stars, etcetera, to figure out where they’re going.
Heather Y
Because of our light pollution, birds do get lost and it’s a huge deal across Texas because so many birds migrate through Texas. So we’ll have information on that, turning your lights off to help with the bird migration, so we’re going to have information from the Texas Master Naturalist on that and the Texas Audubon Society on how you can help with all wildlife, how they’re affected by light pollution and how, like you said, even your porch light plays a part in stopping this.
And one of my favorite lines by Stephen is that light pollution is the only pollution that we could end in one day if everybody wanted to do something about it, which I think is a great lesson for everyone.
But this is really a great chance for people who have never been up to the observatory to take part in a star party that’s right here in your own backyard, right here in Alpine, and then also come to the visitor center during the day for some education on what they may not realize is we’re only a little over halfway through this five year educational period. So come and learn what the light ordinance is about and see how you can put these practices into place at your own home.
Chris R
Are we going to have some music for this Saturday?
Heather Y
We are on Saturday evening. We’re going to have the Musicians Under Stars in a Circle. That’s what they call themselves, which is awesome.
There’s a group that’s going to be led by Desert Debbo and her All Star Review, they lead a little jam session, they’re going to be on the visitor center lawn starting at 8:30 on Saturday night, and anybody can join in and play with them. They love to have any musician come and play or just go and listen.
And they have been instrumental in helping us raise money for a music mural that’s also celebrating our dark skies that we’re working on putting at the visitor center.
Chris R
My hope and I think the odds are good, but our hope is that that mural will be started by the 6th and during that event that muralist Monty Welt will be working on it.
Heather Y
We’ll be doing some painting, yeah.
That’s what we’ve been working on and we’ve been raising money for a while, but that group has really helped us raise a lot of the money for it too. The musicians, they’ve donated some of their tips and they’ve played multiple times when we’ve been raising the money, so it’s really cool that this event’s going to help kind of culminate that and like I said, they’ve been instrumental in helping with it, but so the music is Saturday night during the Star Party, but after the star party, go and listen to some some of the music because they’ll be playing out there from about 8:30 to 10:30 and sometimes they play longer. They just hang out and play as long as they want to. It’s just a kind of come and go.
Chris R
And so that for folks who haven’t been to one of these, it’s a it’s a big circle and they kind of just move the focus around the circle. If you’re next and you’ve got a song you want to play, play it. If you don’t feel like it, if you’re a little shy move on passive baton and and folks play along if they can or they just listen. It’s really welcoming environment, really open to to everybody to participate.
Heather Y
Lots of fun and one of the things that we are going to be doing Saturday at the visitor center, if you come and you, like I said, get some of that great information about dark skies you will get eclipse glasses, because the eclipse is of course, on Monday the 8th, the great eclipse over Texas is Monday the 8th and we are going to be giving away those eclipse glasses. We know that they aren’t going to be in high demand, so come out, get some of the educational material from us and we’ll give you eclipse glasses.
Then on Monday the 8th at the visitor center, we’re going to be doing some viewing. The eclipse will actually be starting at about 12:00 and then the max best time is 122 actually, and then it’ll be wrapping up around about 3:00. Now we are not in the path of totality. We have said this all along. But we’re what, what is the percentage?
Stephen H
About 90%.
Heather Y
Great. And you can actually get a hotel room here if you have not made plans for where you’re going to be. It’s a little late to be getting in the path of totality. You know, those places are expecting thousands of people and the rooms have been gone for like a year. So don’t think you’re just going to drive to Kerrville, Fredericksburg, Waco, these places are full and they are, you know, not going to have room for you.
So here there is room here. We’ll have glasses, we’re going to have built, we’ve made some of the viewing boxes, the safe viewing boxes, which are really nice for kids to use. You know we have colanders. If you’ve never done the viewing through a colander, it’s really neat to see the shadow.
So come on over to the visitor center on Monday the 8th too for that. And you know, we don’t have a time viewing telescopes, but if you want to do that, I think the observatory does solar viewing, yes.
Chris R
So, Steven, tell us a little bit about the eclipse in general. It might be the first time somebody’s here, I doubt it, but it might be the first time somebody’s hearing there’s a total eclipse. So what does that even mean?
Stephen H
So the moon will perfectly block out the sun for if you’re along a narrow path stretching from kind of around Del Rio Eagle pass up through towards Dallas and then continuing across the US So if you’re along that path, I’d say total solar eclipse, meaning the moon will completely block out the sun and now it will be kind of a 360 twilight sunset effect. It’s it’s really, really wild. I know it’s like you’ve seen sunsets before, but you’ve never really seen one, you know, like this, right? It’s pretty wild.
And then you’ll also be able to see what’s called the Sun’s corona, it’s upper atmosphere which is usually completely washed out from the light of the sun. It’s much fainter but kind of these faint bands stretching out away. It’s really gorgeous if you’ve never seen one or you’re unsure, it really is a life changing experience and it is. If you can find a room, yeah, it’s do it if you have a way to do it. But if you can’t and it is going to be, there are gonna be millions of people, you know, not just from Texas but across the whole US and even the world coming to the to Central Texas especially. Here we’re gonna be at 90% and that’s pretty good.
Now that last 10% is, is pretty important. So we’re not gonna see the corona stretching out away from the sun, but you’ll still get a very deep kind of twilight, almost sunset effect even in the middle of the day. You’ll see animals change their behavior, the birds may get really quiet, other things may come out. Some things will think it’s sunset and start heading to bed, so it’s very hard to describe if you’ve never seen it. Everything kind of looks, sepia tone.
Heather Y
As and we talk about the glasses, cuz it is not too safe to view right? Without having the glasses on.
Stephen H
That’s right. Yeah. So if you need to have good, safe, safe eclipse viewers in order to see the eclipse, if you don’t have them, you can still look around, right? I mean, that’s fine, but looking directly at the sun is not safe. So definitely, yeah, do your research. We’ll be handing out good ones, verified safe ones at the visitor center. Yeah, for free on the 5th and 6th. They’ll probably go quick and then we’ll have our own event on April 8th as well at McDonald’s Observatory.
Chris R
Yeah, so what’s gonna happen up there?
Stephen H
So we’re gonna have some larger telescopes looking at the eclipse available for you to look at. So instead of just looking up with the viewers, we’ll have a magnified view and you’ll be able to see like sunspots and texture on the sun, as well as sometimes even sort of the mountains on the moon. You can kind of see them, kind of. The moon isn’t a perfect circle, so when you look at it against the background of the sun, yeah, it looks bumpy when you look at it with a telescope, which is kind of, it’s really neat.
Chris R
Well, that’s a pretty good consolation project for that missing 10%.
Stephen H
Like I said, if you can’t make it out to totality, this is the next best thing. It’ll be a lot less crowded.
Heather Y
Agree.
Chris R
Cool. So once again, that’s April 5th, the evening, April 6th during the day at the visitor center. And then in the evening we’ll have both the the music circle and another star party, and then you can hit that music circle afterwards. And then on the 8th we’ve got a viewing on without a magnification, let’s say at the visitor center, and then with telescopes up on the mountain at a McDonald observatory.
Stephen H
Absolutely.
Chris R
So anything else come to mind Stephen, that you want to leave folks with about the reserve, about International Dark Sky Week? Like what else is the observatory doing for the week, do you know?
Stephen H
Yeah, so because it is eclipse week at McDonald’s Observatory, we are we are kind of eclipsed out, where we’re sending teams all across Texas. So we’re stretched a little thin up there during that week. But we’re gonna have our own Dark Sky Week celebration on May 7th through 11th.
Chris R
OK. Mark those calendars.
Stephen H
So those will be guest speakers on various topics and dark skies. There’s free passes for all locals in the area and of course our famed star parties at night up on the mountain. But yeah, either you can come in April or in May, we’ve got something for you.
Heather Y
And as always, for visitors that are coming, make sure that you book in advance to go to those star parties. They are very popular, so always make your reservations for either the daytime tours of the telescopes or for your star parties. You can go and book, make your reservations to make sure that it fits in with your vacation time. That’s something that we don’t want people to be disappointed if they think they’re just going to walk up there and get to go to a star party when they’re when they’re planning their trips out here.
Stephen H
Yeah. Absolutely. So already on April 5th and 6th that we have star parties at the Observatory – those are sold out. So if you want to do some stargazing, you know in, in early April, you come to Alpine.
Chris R
But if folks are listening on the podcast tonight, I’d like you to step outside your front door and look up, no matter where you’re at and observe. You can see and you know if you if you happen to be almost anywhere else in the state or in the country or the world, even if you’re in proximity to any large city, you’re not going to see much and and so maybe start thinking about coming out to the Big Bend, right?
Heather Y
Right! Because what we’re finding is that more and more people are coming here to see our dark skies because they’re seeing less where they’re at, right? You know, there’s more and more light pollution everywhere else and people are coming here because we can still see the stars and it’s pretty amazing.
Chris R
Yeah, and and they’re getting darker here when they’re getting brighter pretty much everywhere else.
Stephen H
That’s right. You know, we’re actively reversing the trend here in the Big Bend.
Heather Y
And we have you to thank for that. Thank you.
Chris R
Very grateful, Steven. Thank you.
All right. So thanks, Stephen, for joining us. Thank you, Heather, for coming back and joining me again.
And thank all of you for listening to Heart of the Big Bend.
You can get more information about the show at visit alpinetx.com/podcast or search for Heart of the Big Bend on Apple podcasts, Spotify, and most other podcast apps.
And for everyone listening to the local broadcast on KALP/KVLF radio here in Alpine, thank you. We’ll be back in two Fridays.
You’ve been listening to the heart of the Big Bend.
Hope you liked what you heard and that you’ll find the time to experience all that the Big Bend has to offer. See you soon, partner.