Earlier this month, Colorado Governor Jared Polis announced Dark Sky Month. The goal? To raise awareness of a serious problem that affects people, animals, and plants without many of us even noticing.
The first thing he mentions is the aesthetics of having dark skies at night. There are still parts of Colorado where the skies are Bortle Class 1, or in other words, have skies about as dark as possible. In these darkest places, you can have a view of not only the Milky Way, but you can see the rest of the night sky in all of its glory. It’s possible to do things like see your shadow cast in the light of Jupiter, or see the gegenschein .
Colorado in particular stands to benefit a lot from keeping its dark skies at night. Not only are the health and safety effects of dark nights well known , but many people like to travel out west to see the stars. In many places throughout the world, including most of the eastern United States, views of the stars at night are either faint or non-existent. This means a lot of tourism to states with dark skies.