The Flagstaff Dark Skies Coalition (FDSC) celebrates promotes, and protects the glorious dark skies of Flagstaff and Northern Arizona. On October 24th, 2001, the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) designated the City of Flagstaff as the world’s first “International Dark-Sky City.”
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Beginning with the arrival of Percival Lowell and his Clark Telescope in 1894, Flagstaff has become one of the premier deep space research sites in the world. Our small city of around 63,000 citizens is the home of Lowell Observatory, the U.S. Naval Observatory’s Flagstaff Station, and the National Undergraduate Research Observatory. The Navy Prototype Optical Interferometer (NPOI) sits atop Anderson Mesa some 15 miles south of the city, and theDiscovery Channel Telescope is being built by Lowell Observatory 40 miles to the southeast near Happy Jack.
Northern Arizona is also a dark-sky refuge for hundreds of resident amateur astronomers and thousands of visitors from around the world.
On April 15, 1958 the Flagstaff City Council passed Ordinance #440. This simple resolution banned advertising search lights that threatened to mar the night sky for a growing population of professional astronomers. 2008 marked the 50th anniversary of that historic event and the beginning of a dark skies movement that is spreading across the world (see National Geographic Magazine’s “Our Vanishing Night.”)
On October 24th, 2001, the City of Flagstaff became the world’s first “International Dark Sky City.” The designation was awarded by the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA), a nearly 10,000 member tax-exempt non-profit organization dedicated to building awareness of the problems of light pollution as it affects astronomy and the public, and to promote quality outdoor lighting.
Dr. David Crawford, co-founder and Executive Director of IDA, presented the award to City Manager David Wilcox and City Councilwoman Penny Trovillion at a ceremony on the campus of Northern Arizona University.
The International Dark-Sky City designation is given to identify towns and cities “with exceptional commitment to and success in implementing the ideals of dark sky preservation and/or restoration, and their promotion through quality outdoor lighting.”
Crawford also observed that the City of Flagstaff continues to demonstrate this commitment through:
- Pioneering and consistent efforts to develop, implement and maintain the highest quality lighting code.
- Municipal lighting policies such as aggressive replacement of high-pressure sodium and mercury vapor roadway lighting by fully shielded LPS.
- Publication in four “Cityscape” magazines of articles promoting education about the lighting code and the advantages of quality lighting.
- Distribution of Flagstaff Dark Skies Coalition (FDSC)-produced lighting brochures with all building permits.
- Funding of the FDSC Million Lumens Campaign, an innovative program to help businesses replace their “grandfathered” and obsolete lighting.
- Awarding of $3,000.00 to FDSC by the City’s Arts and Science Commission for its autumn 2001 “Celebration of the Night” series of educational and artistic events.
- Undertaking a citywide review of all city-owned facility lighting, with the aim to bring all such lighting completely into compliance with the lighting code by the end of 2002, resources permitting.
- Replacement of all up-directed flag lighting with pole-mounted fully shielded fixtures.
“No other city or town has shown such an overall commitment to protecting the quality of its dark skies, not only for the observatories, but for all the citizens of northern Arizona,” said Dr. Crawford.