Bluff to rejoice Dark Sky Festival this weekend

by David Boyle
News Director
The city of Bluff is celebrating the fantastic thing about the evening sky with a competition stuffed with occasions, telescopes and displays.
The city is celebrating its Dark Sky Community designation with a Dark Sky Festival this Friday and Saturday November 14 and 15.
The designation of a Dark Sky Community was given by the DarkSky International Organization in June of 2025.
Bluff is the primary and solely neighborhood to obtain the DarkSky designation in San Juan County, and the sixth in Utah. Bluff is positioned as a hub for evening sky viewers with 4 close by International Dark Sky Parks: Natural Bridges National Monument, Hovenweep National Monument, Goosenecks State Park, and Canyonlands National Park (Needles District).
The designation comes from DarkSky International a world non-profit working to scale back gentle air pollution by way of outreach, schooling, and lighting coverage.
The designation displays years of neighborhood effort to protect the pure evening sky in Bluff.
Bears Ears Partnership Education Director and Bluff resident Sarah Burak was a key chief of the trouble to obtain the darkish sky designation. Burak defined in an interview with 92.7 FM that the neighborhood took steps to restrict its sky glow.
“To limit the light going into the air the town of Bluff actually wrote and enacted ordinances to monitor exterior lighting.”
Among these rules included absolutely shielded gentle to verify gentle factors to the bottom relatively than go into the sky.
The designation represents over a half-decade of labor with the city of Bluff passing its first ordinance associated to Dark Skies in 2019 and a revision in 2022.
“It’s been a process. Throughout that there’s been public hearings and educational sessions where we’ve talked to residents and business owners about what we’re looking to do and what that would mean for them.”
New buildings in Bluff are being in-built compliance with the ordinance.
“We have several years to get the rest of town into compliance. We have some residents who have already done that. We have a lot of businesses who have already done that.”
Burak clarified its additionally about having sensible lighting not a whole ban on lighting.
“We want to make sure that we have fully shielded lights. We want to make sure we’re using light only when and where we need it. We don’t always have to light things up. So, you can have motion sensors that turn on and off. You can have lights on timers. Those things that reduce our light overall.”
The ordinance was a key part of turning into a darkish sky neighborhood because it appears to take care of the cities darkness by stopping new development from brightening the sky sooner or later.
“After that we went through a pretty lengthy application process where we applied to DarkSky International to be a Dark Sky Community. On top of having our ordinances, we also have to provide educational programming twice a year and continue to do seasonal monitoring of our sky glow. So we go out and take measurements once a quarter to make sure that we’re kind of maintaining those light levels.”
The designation not solely displays the communities appreciation for the darkish evening sky however willingness to take care of it. 
“It’s about trying to maintain and preserve our natural darkness. So, I think it shows that our community is very excited about it and we’re hoping that that’s also going to draw other people to our community to experience the beauty of our night skies.”
The two-day competition is themed “discover the sky we share” with a promise for a “stellar lineup” of occasions.
The occasion begins Friday night on the Bluff Community Center with a welcome earlier than listening to from visitor audio system together with Kevin Schindler from the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff to debate use of astronomy in on a regular basis life, afterwards Dean Regas will present a tour of the universe in a presentation titled you might be right here.
Following the displays on Friday can be a star occasion from 8:00 pm to 10:00 pm with telescopes, walks and constellation excursions.
Saturday’s displays will give attention to Indigenous views on evening skies with Dr. Nancy Maryboy and Dr. David Begay presenting at 6:00 pm in a presentation titled Sharing the Skies: Navajo Constellations. Afterwards Navajo Winter Stories can be shared at 7:00 by Navajo Nation Council Delegate Curtis Yanito in addition to Don Mose Jr. 
Saturday night will even be one other star occasion from 8:00 pm to 10:00 pm with telescopes, walks and constellation excursions.
Evening occasions would require crimson flashlights. White flashlights and cellphone screens must be averted as white gentle can take 20 minutes for evening imaginative and prescient to get well. The occasion may have crimson flashlights out there for future however the occasion will even have methods you possibly can hack your common flashlight together with placing a crimson balloon over it or portray it with crimson fingernail polish.
The occasion will even function daytime actions on Saturday together with a full schedule on the Bluff Community Center together with loads of occasions for youthful kids together with a conveyable planetarium, planet stroll and scavenger hunt.
The moveable planetarium can be doing showings at 10:00 and 11:00 am on the Bluff Community Center. 
Workshops at 10:00 am will even embrace ideas for astrophotography with a cellphone in addition to how one can hack your crimson flashlight. Solar telescope viewings will even happen from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm.
At 1:00 pm can be a planet stroll to offer a to-scale stroll by way of the photo voltaic system. At 2:00 pm Burak can be offering a presentation on how Bluff grew to become a world Dark Sky neighborhood.
Other occasions can be occurring all through Bluff on Saturday. Among them embrace a star cease scavenger hunt till 6:00 pm. Scavengers will go to native Bluff companies for an opportunity to win prizes together with the grand prize of celestron binoculars.
Saturday additionally consists of cosmic rock portray for youths from 11:00 to 4:00 pm at Bluff Dwellings Resort and Spa. From 1:00 to three:00 Bluff’s personal astrophotographer can be on the Canyon Smokehouse to share his gallery and the way he captures the evening sky. At 3:00 pm Jonathan Till will present a photo voltaic orientation in ancestral puebloan neighborhood at cemetery hill.
During the occasion parking is not going to be out there on the Bluff Community Center to attenuate automobile headlights and protect visibility.
Event organizer Diana Davidson added her thanks for the efforts to make the occasion doable
“We have been amazed at all of the support we have received for this festival. From the Business Owners of Bluff, the town of Bluff, San Juan County Visitor Services, Southwest Adventure Tours, various lodging properties here in Bluff have given free lodging. So, it takes a village to put this festival on. And our community has really come together and I thank them all from the bottom of my heart.”
Burak added an open invitation for the occasion.
“People from the county, people from the four corners, people from all over come and take some time to celebrate with us and just go out. If you can’t come to Bluff, go outside, look up and admire your dark sky and enjoy it. because it’s a beautiful resource that we should all take a little bit of time to appreciate.”
A full schedule of occasions will be discovered on-line at BluffUtah.org