Five years ago, during a Perseid meteor shower in August, my husband and I spent our first night at Cosmic Campground in the Gila National Forest. We’d planned the visit ever since DarkSky (formerly the International Dark-Sky Association) designated the primitive camping area 60 miles north of Silver City as the first Dark Sky Sanctuary in the United States.
Following the suggested etiquette, we brought red headlamps and arrived early enough to set up camp before sundown. When the sky darkened, we cozied up with blankets and settled into our camp chairs. Every way we turned, the sky glittered as we rotated our chairs to take advantage of the low horizon and the 360-degree views encircling us. Occasionally, we tilted our heads back to stare into the inky black universe, sprinkled with blazing flecks of light and cut with the Milky Way’s luminous swath.
I’ve since synced the ’ Space and Astronomy Calendar to my own, downloaded an app that alerts me to expected “good” stargazing conditions in my home of Pinos Altos, and
