Photo by Jeffrey Mitton.
To celebrate Colorado’s 150th anniversary, 150 dark sky parties will take place all over the state, including at Hecla Junction July 9.
Friends of Browns Canyon and Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area are partnering to host a dark sky party starting at around 9 p.m., where people can come to learn about constellations, stars, the Milky Way and other deep space objects.
The event is open to the public, registration not required. Michael Kunkel, co-founder of Friends of Browns Canyon, who is helping organize the event, said people should bring a chair, water, warm layers and a red light headlamp if they have one. He explained the red headlamp keeps your eyes adjusted to the darkness, allowing the stars to be more visible, while still lighting the immediate surroundings.
In the event that smoke or weather make it difficult to see the stars the event will take place July 15 instead.
Tom Karnuta has a graduate degree in astronomy and taught astronomy at Colorado Mountain College and now works as an Arches National Park astronomer in residence from June to March. He will be presenting at the party and teaching people how to identify 10 constellations and 10 stars. Karnuta said the night will include several telescopes to see deep-sky objects.
Victor Aziz will also be presenting and helping people observe the Milky Way, deep space globular clusters, nebulas and constellations. Aziz partners with Friends of Browns Canyon on astronomy presentations and has been using telescopes to observe the stars as a hobby for many years. He said his goal is to teach people to find items in space by themselves and teach people to navigate the night sky.
Kunkel said he hopes the night will help people understand the importance of dark skies and how they affect both humans and animals.
“Half the species on the planet begin their day at night,” said Kunkel. “It’s critical for humans.
We’re a healthier society when we aren’t getting bright lights shown at us at all times, and it brings us back to our natural biological rhythms.”
On June 2, the Colorado Tourism Office launched the Colorado Stargazing Trail, which is a statewide guide to dark sky parks and communities. This includes Browns Canyon National Monument, which officially received Dark Sky Park Certification status in 2024, Kunkel said.
To qualify for a dark sky park certification, Kunkel said the park must read at or above 21 mag/arcs per second. He said Browns Canyon reads at 21.5 mag/arc-sec² in four locations.
Kunkel said the other requirement is that the only lights in the park must be necessary for the area, such as for restrooms and signage, and they must have a hood, be pointed downward and be a warm light.
Kunkel said that he hopes the event is an opportunity to learn more about the stars and share in the beauty of Browns Canyon.
“We’ll look at several different types of astronomical wonders and we’ll explain it all as we look at it with the telescope,” said Kunkel.
