According to Derek Wallentinsen, chair of the New Mexico Dark Sky Places Committee, there are five different International Dark Sky Place designations, of which New Mexico has three: International Dark Sky Sanctuary, International Dark Sky Park and Urban Night Sky Place.

October marks the return of the Orionid meteor shower, during which the Earth passes through the trail of debris left behind by Halley’s Comet, the pieces burning up brightly as they enter our atmosphere. It’s one of two annual meteor showers involving the comet (the other is the Eta Aquarids in May).

Glacier National Park is an International Dark Sky Sanctuary. Visitors can see the Milky Way from St. Mary’s Glacier, pictured here. (Photo by Ray Stinson, National Park Service.) Editor’s Note: This post is from our data newsletter, the Rural Index ...

Budding astronomers and Milky Way chasers, rejoice! If your idea of the perfect getaway involves kicking back in utter darkness, miles from civilization, gazing upward, and taking in the majesty of the constellation-filled skies,

A pair of newly discovered comets are making a rare double display in the night sky this week. SWAN and Lemmon, both of which were discovered this year, have reached their closest points to Earth in their thousands-of-years-long orbits around the sun: SWAN on Monday, Oct. 20, and Lemmon Tuesday, Oct. 21, according to Live Science.

On a cool night in August, more than 100 people gathered in a dark corner on Frisco Main Street. The lights at the Frisco Historic Park were out. Phones were tucked away, out of

In the season of the festival of lights, two rare comets are illuminating the skies over India (and the rest of the world). Both comets — C/2025 R2 (SWAN) and C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) — can currently be seen through binoculars from dark sky locations and are expected to be at their brightest this week.