Here’s a Reuters profile of Arizona Sky Village, a planned community for astronomy lovers in Arizona. Above, a building there shown with observatory dome. This is not the only such purpose-built community for stargazers; others include Deerlick Astronomy Village in Georgia and Chiefland Astronomy Village in neighboring Florida. Snip:
The communities are all located in remote areas far from flaring city lights that spoil views of the night sky. Residents abide by rules forbidding bright lights anywhere from dusk till dawn to preserve optimum viewing.
With its stable weather conditions, bone-dry air and isolated location, the Arizona Sky Village offers a near-perfect setting for astronomers, allowing them to see even faint objects like the swirling clouds of gas that make up nebulae and the spiral arms of far-off galaxies in transparent detail.
“It’s ink-black, dead-dark, one of the darkest places in the country,” says Gene Turner, an amateur astronomer and one of the project’s developers.
“The Milky Way is so bright here, it’s three-dimensional. In 1500 you could see it everywhere like this but now that’s very rare,” he said.
Link. (thanks, Jon)
Reader comment: Tom says,
Planned communities are nice. But the pro’s and filthy-rich dot.commer’s go to NM Skies.