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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:
Looking Up is transcribed using a combination of AI speech recognition and human editors. It may contain errors. Please check the corresponding audio before quoting in print.
[Awards Ceremony]: [00:00:00] Well, we're here on a very special day. We're here to celebrate a confluence of milestones in Grand Canyon National Park history.
Dean Regas: Imagine standing beneath a canopy of stars so clear, it earned cosmic accolades. Today, we celebrate Grand Canyon National Park becoming the next international dark sky park. For over a century, Grand Canyon National Park has captivated the globe with its breathtaking views—not just of wildlife and my personal favorite, rocks, lots of rocks—but views of the night sky too.
[Awards Ceremony]: We continue to preserve the aesthetic glory of the night skies—one of the darkest places in the United States—where one can see detailed structure of the Milky Way as it scorches across the sky.
Dean Regas: In 2019, the Grand Canyon was awarded the International Dark Sky Park Designation Award. Today, we'll find out why from a real Night Sky Ranger, Rader Lane, Park Ranger, and Dark Skies Program Manager at Grand Canyon. From the studios of Cincinnati Public Radio, I'm your host, Dean Regas, and this is Looking Up! The show that takes you deep into the cosmos, or just to the telescope in your backyard to learn more about what makes this amazing universe of ours so great.
So, I have had tons and tons of experiences at the Grand Canyon. It is one of the most amazing parks. The view down is just incredible. It's bigger than you think it would be. It's scary. It's impressive. But the part that I'm here to talk about is the stuff that happens after dark.
[Dean with park visitors]: Hi folks, would you like to see through a telescope and see Jupiter? Yes, I would. We heard you were out here. Oh, right. The whole sky just lights up. Oh, what am I seeing there? This is Jupiter.
Dean Regas: You know, most people come during the daytime, they take their little views, they get [00:01:00] in their cars, they drive out. And with all the millions and millions of guests that come to the Grand Canyon, very, very few of them actually ever step foot inside the canyon, and even fewer of them stay to do a nighttime viewing.
[Dean with park visitors]: Oh, dude, you can see the rings. Wow.
Dean Regas: And that's the part that's really amazing because once it gets dark, it is really dark. Like, you can see the Milky Way, it is incredible. And so they've made this effort here at the Grand Canyon, and lots of the parks, and lots of places around the United States, to try to limit light pollution. Unfortunately, the consequences of too much artificial light, or light not being used correctly, causes light pollution. And that's a problem. The more lights you have, the more lights you're shining up to illuminate the nighttime, the less starlight that'll shine down.
[Educational video]: We use so many artificial lights that cities can be seen from space. Light pollution affects the health of people, animals, bugs, birds, and our enjoyment of the night sky.
[Dean with park visitors]: Most people in the United States cannot see the Milky Way. And this is kind of a shame because this is something that we've lost.
[Educational video]: By 1970, other people had started to take notice that the world's skies were not getting any darker, but they were definitely getting brighter. And in 1971, a story in the New York Times led with the sentence, "The clear dark skies of Arizona, as well as the continuing search for our cosmic beginnings, may be threatened by a new and insidious form of environmental contamination known as light pollution."
Dean Regas: And so there are groups and organizations around that are working towards this, trying to limit artificial lighting, trying to figure out smart lighting, angle lighting, and it's had an impact. There's some places around the country where you can go to get away from light pollution. One of them's not very far away from Grand Canyon. Flagstaff is where this really began. The town of [00:02:00] Flagstaff, Arizona, is a dark sky town.
[Educational video]: In 1958, Flagstaff passed the world's first dark sky ordinance.
Dean Regas: It's a city; there's lots of people, there's lots of businesses there, but they've made an effort to be a dark sky city. And you can see the Milky Way from, like, downtown Flagstaff. So it can be done. Yeah, we're going to be talking about the Grand Canyon a lot and things that are going on there. But can it happen where you live? Can you change things where you are?
[Educational video]: In the city where I live, I can look up in the sky, and I can count all the stars there. In fact, that's a question that almost every child has at some point. How many stars are there in the sky? Well, sadly, I know that in the city where I live, the answer is 12.
Dean Regas: It's tough, but it doesn't have to be that way. So Rader, thanks so much for joining me today.
Rader Lane: Oh, it's a pleasure to be here, Dean.
Dean Regas: Oh man, we've had some experiences in the Grand Canyon National Park, haven't we?
Rader Lane: Indeed we have. We miss you over here. We hope to get you back sooner or later.
Dean Regas: Oh man, if only I could just live down in Phantom Ranch to the bottom. Oh man, speaking as a, uh, you know, Midwesterner who wishes he lived out there, what's your path to becoming a park ranger at the Grand Canyon?
Rader Lane: Well, everybody has a slightly different path depending on what branch of park rangerism you go into.
[Educational video]: There's so many benefits to being a ranger. It doesn't get boring every day. There is something new. Uh, so I'm an education and interpretation ranger. I provide public programs to visitors and inspire them to protect and preserve the park by assisting and connect them intellectually, emotionally.
The park, I started here back in 2010. You know, I did an [00:03:00] internship while I was in college, basically riding around on the shuttle buses, helping people with orientation. But at the end of that three-month internship, they allowed me to do one geology program. I'd studied for about three months, the details of Grand Canyon's geology, and, uh, was able to give one 20-minute presentation to a group of visitors.
The big day came, and there was about eight visitors there, you know, waiting for my talk, and I gave the presentation, and it was the highlight of my entire summer, and after I gave the presentation and exhausted myself with my passion and knowledge, an elder gentleman sort of came up to me, shuffled up to me with a cane, and he said, "Yeah, that was all right." And then he walked away. And that was all the adulation I needed.
[Rader in an old video]: Growing up, I moved around a lot. And I still move around a lot. I think that's something that's true of simply being human in the 21st century at this point.
Rader Lane: And I just was I came back. Summer after summer, working seasonally for several years before Park finally got annoyed with me and said, he's not going anywhere, we might as well just give him a permanent job.
[Rader in an old video]: Now, after studying astronomy and being inspired by it, I can be at home wherever I am and watch Patterns in the sky rise for their seasonal dance over the celestial sphere.
Dean Regas: Love It. And I mean, so then you progress and start working with the Night Sky program and the Grand Canyon Star Party. How did that transition go from geology to astronomy?
Rader Lane: Well among all the programs as interpreters, we give night sky programs as well So we give geology programs history programs fossil talks You know hikes into the canyon all sorts of talks on all the [00:04:00] cultural and natural resources of grand canyon And among those is our beautiful pristine night skies We've had what's called the grand canyon star party that has been an event here for the last 30 plus years And so every summer I would work that event tonight.
I sort of just walked around like a fanboy taking notes, learning all I could, and about six years later, the coordinator moved on and I slipped into that position. Well, this is a public star party, which means a gathering of astronomers with telescopes set up for the public to look through. It really does feel like a party.
Dean Regas: Well, I'm glad you mentioned the Grand Canyon Star Party. That's how we met initially. I was involved with just being one of the speakers, uh, every year for a few years. How do you describe that to people? The scene, the situation, every night, it's because it's eight nights of stargazing, uh, and it's a festival. What's, what kind of describe it to folks that might not have seen it?
Rader Lane: Well, it started back in 1991, and it started in the Yavapai Geology Museum parking lot as a group of four or five astronomers with their telescopes. And it has now grown to be the largest night sky festival in the National Park Service.
[Educational video]: On the South Rim, everything happens around the Grand Canyon Visitor Center. From 35 to 50 telescopes are set up every night behind the visitor center. You can park in lots one through four. The last village bus leaves at 11 o'clock sharp, so don't miss it.
Rader Lane: It's eight nights, as you say, in June around the new moon, where we celebrate Rankin's Christening Night Skies with eight special guest speakers who kick off the evening with what we like to call Twilight Talks.
And you'll have anywhere nowadays between five and seven hundred visitors attending one of these Twilight Talks. These talks are followed then by an evening of telescope viewing in our back parking lot, where we have [00:05:00] up to 120 volunteer astronomers from various astronomy associations and organizations who bring their telescope and volunteer their time to show people the wonders of the universe.
And throughout the evening we'll provide things like A few laser-guided constellation presentations or night sky photography workshops. During the day, we have solar telescopes out along the rim, viewing the sun. It really is this massive event where, you know, this last year alone, we had about 10,000 people over the eight nights, uh, coming out to just be inspired by the pristine natural darkness of the canyons.
It is one of my favorite events of the year, and you get to see some fantastic presentations. So we're very grateful for you choosing Grand Canyon as your, your event.
[Dean with park visitors]: That's awesome. Pretty cool. Oh, that's nice. Thank you so much.
Dean Regas: Oh, man, it's, it is my favorite one because of, I mean, just the sheer numbers of people. I mean, you're talking about talking to eight people for geology. So you've moved up to really big time. And I mean, a thousand people a night is quite the scene. And, um, yeah, I told the story so many times, but, uh, you know, being at the Grand Canyon and showing people views through telescopes, I had so many people to say that that. Seeing the night sky was their best part of their trip. And I'm like, you know, did you see the Grand Canyon? Like it's in the daytime. It's pretty amazing. And they said, no, yeah, the night sky is better than the Grand Canyon. Have you heard that?
Rader Lane: I have heard that. And I try not to play favorites when it comes to the amazing resources of the Grand Canyon. You know, I was like, there's really no place else on nocturnal Earth where you can stand between as much deep time revealed beneath you in stone and above you in star and have. [00:06:00] these incredible experiences that really approach the numinous and the spiritual. And, uh, and so this is the place to enjoy the beauty of a purified day and the galaxy and beyond at night. We have people who cry at our telescopes who just gasp, ooh, and awe at the immensity of the constellations and the celestial phenomena you can see at a dark sky site like this. Through my time in the National Park Service, educating people about the natural world and the cultural resources here, the night skies is truly unique when it comes to just how loud and mesmerized people are by it. And I think that is in part due to the fact that, you know, statistically speaking, 80 percent of people in the United States today can't see the Milky Way from their home due to excess light pollution. And so it's becoming an increasingly rare resource.
[Educational video]: Luckily, we can all do something about light pollution. It's a choice we make.
Dean Regas: Well, and Grand Canyon made a pretty significant effort to become darker, and I know you've been a huge part of that. Like, what are some of the efforts that you've seen over the last few years to kind of even reduce the light pollution in Grand Canyon?
Rader Lane: We became an international dark sky park in 2019, and that was certified to us by what's known as Dark Sky International because we demonstrated a commitment to retrofitting all the lights in the park, as well as demonstrated our commitment to outreach programs. Back in 2013, we inventoried all the lights in the park, and there was an astonishing 5,094 exterior lights. So, in terms of scale, our retrofit process to become an international dark sky park has really been unprecedented when it comes to any big national park and so we've to date have retrofit nearly 90 percent of those 5094 lights to be dark sky friendly.
[Educational video]: We were looking at fixtures that would be fully shielded and in all cases a fully [00:07:00] shielded fixture is one that the light bulb is tucked up into the shade and the light is directed downward.
Rader Lane: So that's thousands of exterior light fixtures and then we've also boosted our outreach programming by leaps and bounds not only doing the great kin star party but doing things like the astronomer residence program of which you are an alumni and we are well on our way to becoming 100 percent compliant within the next few years, that is to say, having every single light in the park being night sky friendly.
Dean Regas: Yeah, I've only been a, uh, Passing visitor stay in about a month and a stint in a few weeks. And it just, it's a, it's a magical place to live there. It must be incredible. And I think it's probably inspired you in some other ways. You're also not only a park ranger, but an award winning filmmaker. So there's a few pieces out there that are just really moving. Can you talk a little bit about those and, uh, you know, how it kind of came to be and these kinds of installations that turned into these amazing videos?
Rader Lane: So what you're referring to is the next spoken series, which-
[From Night Spoken Video]: oh, are we recording now? Oh, okay. All right. Is it recording now? Oh, it is recording. I see it's finished.
Rader Lane: I created a series of videos that were based off of these pop-up installations, where they're designed for people to sort of just wander into, wander upon some creative installation that poses a certain question. And they are asked to respond to the question if they like, there's no pressure to, of course. I created a series of three main videos, uh, and each one asks a different question about the night sky and, and collects the responses in some clever way. The first one, called Night Spoken, collects the responses from visitors through a, a vintage cassette [00:08:00] recorder. And it kind of, you know, poses the question, oh, you've been sent back from the future. It's 2218 and you can no longer see the night skies anymore, uh, because of light pollution. But, you know, look up and send a message back to your future people about what it is they're missing. You know, the second one we did down at Phantom Ranch called Night Visions, we set up a wildlife camera.
[From Night Visions Video]: Mind-blowing, right? I can't help but think of myself as a tiny speck of sand in this glorious universe.
Rader Lane: I invited people to come up to this vacant campground and ask the question, if this was the last night in a thousand years that you could see the stars, how would you want to remember them?
[From Night Visions Video]: A lot of people get really intimidated by the
amount of stars in the sky. I don't mind, Bob. feel really small. You're, you're spectacular. It's hard to understand. I don't know. Next question I prefer. I'm not talking about it. I didn't mean to do that.
Rader Lane: The third one, by consensus, seems to be the most emotional one, titled Night Requiem, where We set out an old rotary phone in the telescope lock during Grand Canyon Star Party. And asked people to dial a number we gave them and leave a message for a loved one who has, who had passed away.
[From Night Requiem Video]:
Message 13. Received Wednesday at 11:19 p.m.
Hi, uh, we're weird, but I just want you to know that I miss you a lot...
Rader Lane:
And the premise being that a lot of cultures believe that when their loved ones pass away, they become stars.
[From Night Requiem Video]:
Dear visitor, many cultures believe when their loved ones pass away, they become stars. Look up and pick out [00:09:00] a special star in the sky. When you hear the beep, speak to someone who you love who has passed away. What do you feel looking up at them? What do you want to say to them?
Rader Lane:
As you can imagine, that, uh, that elicited some fairly emotional responses.
[From Night Requiem Video]:
Hey mom, I love nature. And every day when I'm out there and I share it with other folks, you're the
Rader Lane:
very difficult one for me personally to, to make, having to listen to them over and over again.
[From Night Requiem Video]:
I feel like the stars are looking back at us from all our old ancestors, saying hello, and it feels very magical.
Awesome.
Rader Lane:
I think it was worth it to give us all a sense of the immense culture that is at stake when it comes to blotting out the night skies. If spiritually, our ancestors are in the stars themselves, then hopefully we would have, you know, the mind to want to preserve the night skies in its most pristine form so that we can see them and continue to talk with them.
Dean Regas:
Yeah, I'm just, I'm blown away by what the visitor responses are to these programs. And we hope to see everybody at the next Grand Canyon Star Party, which I think is, if I'm not mistaken, June 1st through 8th of 2024. Does that sound right? Correct. And I can come?
Rader Lane:
Yes, we expect you to come.
Dean Regas:
Okay, good, because it's on my calendar. So yeah, that'd be great.
Rader Lane:
We'll be disappointed if you don't.
Dean Regas:
All right. Well, Rader, this has been so great talking with you today. Thank you so much. And thanks for all you do at the Grand Canyon.
Rader Lane:
Likewise!
Dean Regas:
Half the park is after dark. That is the National Park's new motto, to encourage you to come and experience the nighttime sky.
And so, what can you do? Well, here's your homework assignment.
Number [00:10:00] one, come with me to the Grand Canyon next time I visit. It's gonna be awesome. I'll show you around. It's really cool. Or, go to any of the other national parks that are out there. There's lots of dark sky parks. There's also those maps. Maybe you've seen those on the internet, the, you know, what the United States looks like at night. Like, you can see satellite pictures looking down at the globe, and you can see the lights of the cities. So, one thing I like to do is, like, look at that map and see where there aren't any lights, and experience that.
Now, there's only one downside to that, and this is what I experienced coming back to Cincinnati. You have to be at the Grand Canyon for weeks, and see the dark sky, and then you come back. And you're like, man, I'm missing something. So, that means the other part of your homework assignment is to look at your own situation, look at your own house, see if there's some things you can do to minimize your light footprint that's out there.
Uh, there's a great website to find out some more tips on yourself called darksky.org, and you can find out all sorts of tips from the experts. There's ways that you can do this, and In the Night Sky is just incredible. Just think about going outside and seeing the Milky Way from your own house. We can do this. We can definitely do this. So, that's your homework assignment. Get to a dark sky, or create some dark skies yourself.
Looking up with Dean Regas is a production of Cincinnati Public Radio. Ella Rowen is our show producer and the clumsiest hiker out there. I find that hard to believe. Marshall Verbsky assists with audio production and campfire ignition, but he also keeps the light pollution down to a minimum. He does a good job. Thanks, Marshall. Our theme song is Possible Light by Ziv Moran. I'm Dean Regas and keep looking up!
