Have you ever looked up at the night sky from somewhere that is truly dark?
Very few people can escape the human made light pollution of cities and towns.
This means when you look up at the stars at night, you’re only seeing a small fraction of what is actually there.
To get a truly realistic view of what the night sky looks like, you need to be standing somewhere that is as minimally polluted by artificial light sources as possible (this includes building lights, industry, street lights, housing, traffic lights and so on).
The International Dark Sky Reserve system pinpoints locations around the world where little to no ground lighting pollutes the view of the night sky.
Few people are aware that the South Island of New Zealand contains the largest International Dark Sky Reserve in the world!
It’s located at Lake Tekapo and is considered one of the very best places on Earth to stargaze.
The total area of the dark sky reserve is 4300 square kilometres.