Our Projects
Dark Sky Monitoring
Expanding the region's night-sky record with more and better instruments, so the darkest skies in the lower 48 are documented in detail rather than lost quietly.
Big Bend National Park has the darkest measured night skies of any national park in the lower 48 states, and the region around it holds some of the last truly dark sky in the country. That darkness is not guaranteed. New construction, lighting, and infrastructure across the region change the night sky, and those changes deserve to be measured as they happen.
The region already keeps a public, verifiable record of its night sky. The Alliance is collaborating with that existing community, alongside McDonald Observatory, Big Bend National Park, and regional dark-sky partners, to strengthen it: adding more advanced, and more numerous, dark-sky monitoring cameras and sensors so the record is denser, sharper, and harder to dispute.
A stronger record supports the park's dark-sky standing, informs local lighting decisions, and shows plainly what new development does to a resource that cannot be restored once it is gone.
This project is in development. We will publish partners, equipment, and monitoring locations here as each is confirmed, and the data as it comes in from the field.