At Home within the Heavens

Throughout the ages, people of every culture have looked to the night sky. Its uses vary: navigation, agriculture, scientific advancement, and enjoyment, to name a few. A dark sky provides inspiration, perspective, and connection to those who look up, no matter their time or place on Earth. The dark night sky has been an ever present facet over Acadia. As such steadfast company to this landscape, people throughout the park’s history and in the present day find connections to the night sky.

People throughout history have connected to the beautiful night skies over Acadia National Park.

NPS/ S. Stalker

Today, visitors flock to Acadia to escape the hurried world that most of us know. We are able to enjoy a soundscape of crashing waves instead of rushing cars, and a landscape of expansive mountain peaks instead of city skylines. For those who stay up a bit later, this includes the opportunity to stare up into a dark sky awash with stars. It is respite from the light soaked sky most of us are familiar with.

Storytelling and Guiding

The very earliest Wabanaki people looked to the same stars over Mount Desert Island as they do today, only minimally altered by light pollution. In Wabanaki culture, the winter season is traditionally a time to tell stories, many of which relate to the stars. Today, star stories of the dawnland remain important to the Wabanaki communities in Maine.

For early explorers, the night sky acted as a guide. Take Samuel de Champlain, a French navigator and cartographer, for example. Champlain led a group of 79 men to the “new world” in 1604. To calculate his ship’s latitude, Champlain used an astrolabe and cross-staff. Both instruments require locating a celestial body, such as the sun or North Star. Champlain was the first Frenchman to map the island where most of Acadia is located, and named it "Île de Monts Déserts," which we now know as “Mount Desert Island”. Without the North Star shining over the ocean, who knows what name we would recognize this area by today?

The Champlain Society posed near their campsite on Mount Desert Island in the summer of 1881.

Courtesy of Mount Desert Island Historical Society

For the earliest scientists to the area, the night sky became both a familiar and welcome sight. The Champlain Society was a group of Harvard students who, from 1880-1889, studied Mount Desert Island's natural features. Each summer, they camped out on the island as they studied, and kept meticulous scientific notes and camp logs. The students could not resist the draw of a beautiful night. They put their work, journals, and tools down so they could watch and admire it from time to time. When reading their camp logs, it is common to come across entries about the night sky.

“After the moon rose all hands abandoned the tent and watched the sky. The dark, deep, cold, spaces between the broken patches of drifting clouds, white and radiant clouds themselves,
and the brilliant bursts of light with which the moon
surprised us now and then, made a very beautiful sight.”
- Champlain Society Records: August 8, 1881

Inspiring and Creating

To many, the night sky is a source of beauty. In the mid-1800s, the Hudson River School of Artists emerged, seeking to highlight wild and powerful American landscapes. Many of these artists visited Mount Desert Island. Their work enticed a public looking to escape from industrialized cities. In under a decade Mount Desert Island went from relatively unknown, to a premier tourist destination for the wealthy. A handful of the paintings produced in this era depicted the area at night. For example, Fitz Hugh Lane’s “Fishing Party”, illustrates a full moon shining over the ocean, with stars peeking out behind clouds.

The night sky continues to inspire art in the form of astrophotography.

NPS/ S. Stalker

Artists continue to draw inspiration from the night sky. People from all over the world try night photography here, both recreationally and professionally. Acadia selected Imma Barrera as one of the park’s Artist-In-Residence in 2020 for her stunning astrophotography and night landscapes. The park recognizes that art can act as a first line of defense in protecting dark night skies against light pollution, and has created an art activity for visitors.

Looking and Remembering

The night sky continues to be important to those who call Acadia National Park home. To the seasonal park ranger, who moves from park to park every six months, the night sky remains as the one constant in their life. While their surroundings, friends, and coworkers change, the constellations overhead remain as a familiar face. The rising of Scorpious each summer marks the move to a new park, while Orion's Belt calls seasonal rangers back to their winter homes. To a ranger who has lived on Mount Desert Island his entire life, and has worked in Acadia for over twenty years, the night sky is home:

Kirk Lurvey, park ranger, finds himself at home among the stars over Acadia.

Courtesy of Yehyun Kim, Friends of Acadia

“I am fortunate enough to live here, surrounded by Acadia, where I can experience a pristine night sky, whether it be the moon, stars or the Milky Way. For me it evokes a sense of wonder and beauty and affords me the opportunity to share it with others when they are attending one of my interpretive ranger programs or gathered as friends.” -Kirk Lurvey, Astronomy Ranger

On your next trip through Acadia, stay out past the glimmers of the sun's last light, and watch as the stars begin to peak out. Pause until the enormity of the universe dwarfs your small body. Let the history of all those who have stared up into this same sky, on this same island, overwhelm you. And then take all the wonder that has built up within you and create. Create stories like the Wabanaki, a tool like Champlain’s map, a diary entry like the Champlain Society's camp log, art like Imma Barrera's photography, a home within the heavens like astronomy rangers, or a memory to carry with you past your stay in Acadia National Park.