Route 66 in the Mojave Desert may become a Dark Sky Sanctuary

The Mojave Trails National Monument, which includes a long stretch of Route 66 in the Southern California desert, may be designated a Dark Sky Sanctuary that could attract star-watchers from all over the globe.

Travel + Leisure magazine broke the story about the possible designation. The Women In Science Discovering Our Mojave, or WISDOM, research project is making the case for it:

WISDOM is a group of female college interns who gathered each new moon at Mojave Trails to measure the darkness of the night sky at eight different locations using a sky quality meter and smartphone apps like Dark Sky Meter and Loss Of The Night.  “Every location we were at we measured more than a thousand stars, and often way more,” said Paige. To qualify as an International Dark Sky Sanctuary, the luminance of the night sky must have an average of 21.5 on the sky quality scale. The team discovered that all of the locations it visited met that criteria.  
If the attempt to make Mojave Trails an International Dark Sky Sanctuary is successful, it would join an elite list of remote regions around the world that boast some of the planet’s last remaining, most preciously dark skies. […]
It may be a remote and wild place, but light pollution from faraway cities is beginning to impact Mojave Trails. “We can see the light from Las Vegas during the night and it’s enough to disrupt physiological behaviour in plants, some of which only bloom in the dark of night,” said Paige. “Some insects use light to find water where they breed, but lights disorient them while birds use the light from the setting sun, the moon, and the stars to navigate and as directional cues and they veer hundreds of miles off course and get exhausted.”

The Phoenix,-based International Dark-Sky Association will make the decision on the Dark Sky Sanctuary. It’s defined as “public or private land that has an exceptional or distinguished quality of starry nights and a nocturnal environment that is protected for its scientific, natural, or educational value, its cultural heritage and/or public enjoyment.”

Fourteen other Dark Sky Sanctuaries exist around the world. The closest to Route 66 is the Cosmic Campground, which is about a three-hour drive south of Gallup, New Mexico.

(Image of the night sky in Cadiz, California, by Mojave Rails via Flickr)