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Through the Sky Darkly: With lots more hours of night, we have many more opportunities to wonder at the night sky. Dark Sky projects and celebrations have cropped up around the world, calling attention to the lights that inhibit those views but also to the locations where deep, dark skies can be found. Among the Lake Superior neighborhood locations with various “dark sky” designations are Minnesota’s Voyageurs National Park and Ontario’s Quetico Provincial Park along the boundary waters and Lake Superior Provincial Park on the eastern Lakeshore. The first two got their designations from the International Dark-Sky Association, which takes applications under five categories of sites: Communities, Parks, Reserves, Sanctuaries and Urban Night Sky Places. Lake Superior Provincial Park was designated as a Dark Sky Preserve through the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, which also has a variety of categories. NASA released this satellite image of the lights in 2012. (Interestingly, Caitlyn Buongiomo published a story on Astronomy.com about satellites’ own contributions to light pollution.) You can likely find somewhere with good stargazing not far from your Big Lake locale. Recently, several good nights of northern lights have thrilled sky watchers and photographers. Next week would be a good time to look up in the evening with the Leonids meteor shower on Nov. 17-18 and a partial lunar eclipse on Nov. 18-19. Some Big Lake regions are encouraging night sky tourism and have developed webpages, such as through Visit Cook County in Minnesota. In Michigan, Keweenaw Mountain Lodge near the tip of the Keweenaw Peninsula, has applied to be an International Dark Sky Park. “The advantage we have on the Keweenaw is we can look north to Lake Superior’s horizon,” lodge owner John Mueller says. “You don’t have to go to Finland or Alaska to be awed.”
All They’ve Achieved: Co-publisher Beth Bily and Editor Konnie LeMay got to take a gorgeous road trip from Duluth to Bayfield for a special presentation on a particularly glorious November day. On Tuesday, the two delivered the 2021 Lake Superior Magazine Achievement Award, given to the Friends of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. Several of the Friends members showed up for the presentation, done on the Washington Avenue Beach. Speaking, along with Konnie, were Erica Peterson, chair of the Friends’ board of directors; Jeff Rennicke, who is co-executive director for the Friends along with his wife, Jill; and Lynne Dominy, superintendent
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