Humankind skincare update#

“And by mid-October, all three planets - Saturn, Jupiter and Mars - will be in the night sky, and that will continue well into November.” Also visible in September is the Milky Way, though it can be difficult to view in urban areas, cautions McKeegan. “You don’t need a big telescope you can see the rings around Saturn and the moons of Jupiter with a good pair of binoculars,” says McKeegan, who advises opting for a pair with 8x or 10x magnification. This month, Saturn and Jupiter come into view, and toward the end of September and into October, Mars will be visible in the Eastern sky. “Because the earth orbits around the sun, we see different constellations of stars at night at different times of the year, so we’re going to be seeing the fall constellations coming up,” McKeegan says. The wonderous thing about the night sky - and perhaps the reason why we’re just as enthralled with it today as our ancestors were - is that our view is constantly evolving. Guided experiences like the one with Jolley, or those offered by local observatories like Chabot, can help night sky viewers more easily identify constellations and planets, but even stargazing solo can be a deeply gratifying experience. To generate awareness about their efforts, the initiative’s stakeholders created the Dark Sky Point Reyes, where people can learn more about the cause and register to attend monthly donation-supported stargazing events led astronomy teacher Don Jolley, who regales participants with tales of galaxies far, far away while they gaze upon the starlit sky.

“My grandchildren couldn’t walk outside of my apartment and see the Big Dipper on a clear night because of all the lighting in town.” “I’ve lived here in Point Reyes for 50 years, and we were beginning to lose the nightscape in town,” she says. Point Reyes Station Village Association Vice President Peggy Day, who is closely involved in the application process, hopes that with the International Dark Sky Reserve designation, West Marin will be able to preserve its night sky for current and future generations.

Humankind skincare update#

The rigorous application process, which began earlier this year, takes about three years to complete and involves working with property and business owners to reduce light pollution, as well as collaborating with the county to update lighting regulations. Abbotts Lagoon, Point Reyes National Seashore. Regions with this designation agree to limit light pollution through responsible lighting policy and practice. In Marin County, the desire to preserve this celestial view recently prompted the Point Reyes National Seashore, the town of Point Reyes Station and the surrounding communities to join forces and apply to become an official International Dark Sky Reserve, a title bestowed on only a handful of regions in the world. “But 200 or even 150 years ago, if you looked at the sky you would have seen thousands of stars, and you could clearly see the Milky Way.” “Even under the best of circumstances, we only see a few dozen stars in our night sky,” McKeegan says. One of the things that’s changed since ancient people viewed the cosmos, he says, is that light pollution in urban areas prevents us from seeing nearly as many stars as people once did. McKeegan has been teaching astronomy classes, conducting planetarium shows, and coordinating public weekend telescope viewing sessions every Friday and Saturday night at Chabot, weather permitting, for over 22 years. “The ancient Egyptians, Greeks and almost every ancient culture engaged in some sort of primitive astronomy and had stories about the night sky.” “Humans have been studying the planets and outer space for thousands of years,” says Gerald McKeegan, adjunct astronomer at Oakland’s Chabot Space & Science Center. This simple activity has fascinated humankind for as long as we’ve existed on Earth. As we settle into early fall in Marin, the coastal fog diminishes, bringing warm days and clear nights, offering plentiful opportunities to observe the night sky.