Treasures of the Night Sky
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The Apostle Islands Starry Skies Initiative, launching in 2024, seeks to protect night sky resources in and around the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore through the identification and monitoring of light pollution, public outreach, increasing awareness, and a potential certification for the Apostle Islands as an International Dark Sky Park through the Dark Sky International (formerly International Dark Sky Association (IDA)).
You can help keep those stars shining bright. We will be working with local communities, businesses, and residents on ways to both reduce the light pollution in our area and provide safe, efficient, and cost-effective lighting.
Northern Lights over Little Sand Bay
Northern Lights overhead
Northern Lights over Honeymoon Rock
It begins with a glimmer, just a hint of brightness on the northern horizon. Then, it builds, rising like an aria. Soon, the night sky is glowing green and red, dancing with light, shimmering like diamonds. The aurora is dancing. The northern lights are gleaming above the Apostle Islands.
To watch the white sail of a full moon gliding across the stars, see the brushstroke of the Milky Way or the flicker of northern lights painting the night sky is to witness one of true the wonders of the world, a gift of nature. And there are very few places in the world where that gift is on display more clearly than the Apostle Islands.
Milky Way over Sand Island Lighthouse
Milky Way and air glow over Devils Island Lighthouse
Milky Way over Michigan Island Lighthouse
Artificial light pollutes the night sky for more than 80% of the world’s population. One third of humanity cannot see the Milky Way at night due to the luminescent glow of artificial light. Artificial light can also harm wildlife and human health. But here in the islands, we enjoy some of the darkest skies in the lower 48 states. Far from the big cities, with clear air, and miles of open horizons, this area is a mecca for night sky viewing – the Milky Way arching across the sky, the constellations spelling out wonder, falling stars punctuating it all.
You can help keep those stars shining bright.
Milky Way over Stockton Island
One of our priority issues for 2024 and beyond will be to look at the potential for protecting our night sky resources here in the Islands through the identification and monitoring of light pollution, public outreach, increasing awareness, and a potential certification for the Apostle Islands as an International Dark Sky Park through Dark Sky International.
Currently the Dark Sky has certified more than 200 sites in 22 countries on 6 continents including national parks such as Big Bend in Texas, Joshua Tree in California, Capitol Reef in Utah, and Voyageurs National Park in Minnesota as well as other sites including Newport State Park right here in Wisconsin. Wildcat Mountain State Park, the Kickapoo Valley Reserve (KVR) and the Mississippi Valley Conservancy are working together to designate the 13,300 acres of Wildcat, KVR and Tunnelville Cliffs as Wisconsin’s second International Dark Sky Park.
In order for national parks to be officially certified an International Dark Sky Park, they must meet strict criteria set by the Dark Sky International, including:
Demonstrating high-quality starry nights
Implementing responsible lighting practices
Providing public education and outreach programs
Monitoring the impact of artificial light on the night sky
We will need your help too.
Light pollution does not respect national park boundaries. We will be working with local communities, businesses, and residents on ways to both reduce the light pollution in our area and provide safe, efficient, and cost-effective lighting.
“It would be a multi-year effort,” Executive Director Jeff Rennicke says, “requiring close consultation and cooperation from both the National Park Service and the surrounding communities, and your help but a Dark Sky Park certification would put the Apostle Islands in a select group of beautiful places across the world in recognizing the incredible resource we have here for night skies.”
Our dark skies are a gift filled with beauty and wonder. Preserving dark skies helps showcase that beauty, saves money, and protects wildlife like night migrating birds. It is a gift to all of us, open and available by simply stepping outside at night and looking up.
Join our effort to protect starry skies by clicking below to sign up for special newsletters, events, and information on how you can help us reach for the stars through the Apostle Islands Starry Skies Initiative.
Night sky photography on this page by Jeff Rennicke, Mark Weller, Carol and Roy Toepke, Jon Okerstrom
More Starry Skies stories
Friends Earth Day event draws dozens of volunteers, lakeshore lovers to Bayfield
What’s your memory of your first Earth Day? Friends Executive Director Jeff Rennicke asked the audience step back in time as he recounted the history of Earth Day and it’s everlasting connection to the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. And he asked everyone to roll up their sleeves.
Silent night, starry night: Photographer Travis Novitsky on the Lake Superior night sky
“Oftentimes the most notable quality of the night is the silence,” photographer Travis Novitsky told the crowd at a recent program in Bayfield. “To hear that silence you need to push everything out of your mind and let yourself truly be in that moment. That’s why I like the night sky so much.”
The stars aligned: After a successful Dark Sky Star Bright event, planning begins for next year
Well over 1,000 people attended one of the more than 50 events that made up our Dark Sky Star Bright festival this year – art exhibits, candlelit dinners, astronomy programs, author talks, film-screenings, saunas under the stars, and more.
How smart lighting choices can protect our precious night sky, save energy and money – a Dark Sky Star Bright Festival event
In my business. In my community. How do I help protect the night sky, one lightbulb at a time?” To answer that question, outdoor lighting expert, Electrical Engineer and Dark Sky advocate Scott Lind took a deep dive into the rapidly-evolving field of outdoor lighting science, technology and design.
Stories, songs and science fill day two of Bayfield’s Dark Sky Star Bright Festival
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Enjoy your weekend with the stars as the Dark Sky Star Bright Festival kicks off
The stars are aligning in Bayfield beginning this weekend (Jan. 17th) and running through Sunday, January 25th. Over fifty events for kids and adults, from films to food and fun to programs with astronomers and pizza with photographers.
A shared commitment to wonder: Apostle Islands Booksellers joins Starry Skies Initiative
For the Apostle Islands Booksellers, Dark Sky, Star Bright is not just an event. “It is,” they say, “a shared commitment to stewardship, wonder, and slowing down enough to notice what is easily lost. We’re proud to stand alongside Friends of the Apostle Islands in helping ensure that future generations can experience the profound beauty of a truly dark night sky.”
Reaching for the stars: Bayfield gallery sponsors Starry Skies Initiative
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Dark Sky Star Bright celebration schedule of events for January 17-25, 2026
From January 17–25, 2026, we’re inviting you to slow down, look up, and experience winter on Lake Superior in a whole new way. This nine-day event will bring together stargazing, photography, wellness, and night sky education — all designed to help you reconnect with nature and yourself in the calm beauty of Bayfield’s winter landscape.
International Dark Sky Week focuses attention on the starry skies over the Apostle Islands
The Apostle Islands have some of the most beautiful night skies in the country. Will you help us work to keep them that way? In 2024, Friends of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore has launched our Starry Skies Initiative. It’s designed to identify and monitor light pollution threatening the lakeshore, and to engage in public outreach, increase awareness, and potential certification for the Apostle Islands as an International Dark Sky Park through the Dark Sky International.
Friends of the Apostle Islands and you: the art of making a difference
With so many good causes out there this time of the year, how do you decide which organizations to support? Well, making a difference is an art. As you plan your charitable gift-giving this holiday season, we hope you will consider Friends of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore.
Together we support the park we love on Giving Tuesday 2024
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The picture of support: how you can support the park you love and enjoy the beauty of original island photography
Photographer Peter Wagner fell in love with the Apostle Islands through the lens of his camera. Now, the Friends Business Member and owner of Superior Photographic would like to give back to the islands through offering his art in support of Friends of the Apostle Islands. Purchase any of Peter Wagner’s work through his Superior Photographic website between now and the end of the year and you will both receive a 20% discount on his work and trigger another 20% donation to the projects and programs of Friends of the Apostle Islands.
Celebrate the northern lights by giving back to the night sky
The sky danced. Not just over the Apostle Islands but as far south as Florida and Texas here in the U.S. and around the world. You watched the lights. You scrolled the photographs, now give something back to the northern lights. Here’s five things you can do.
Faces of Friends: artisan Kate Clark supports starry skies
You don’t have to look far to enjoy the beauty of the night sky in the Apostle Islands, just look up. When Friends wanted a design to depict that beauty for our Starry Skies Initiative, we didn’t have to look far either.
We turned to Penny Print Studio, a local boutique, print shop, artisan studio, and creative hub located right on Bayfield’s Manypenny Avenue established in 2022 by Friends supporters Kate and Abe Clark.
Dark Sky Week: from the first lighthouse beacon to the starry skies of today and beyond
Now, 15 years after Weller and his team made that first, iconic image, he reflects on the first time he experienced the star-filled skies above Outer Island. “I had never seen skies like that. It was not lost on me that we were looking at sky that people a hundred years ago… a thousand years ago… would see.” Weller thinks back to the mariners who navigated Lake Superior by the stars before the first lighthouses helped to guide them through stormy seas. “That line from the hymn Amazing Grace echos in my mind immediately. “I once was lost but now I am found.”
How you can celebrate International Dark Sky Week in and around the Apostle Islands
International Dark Sky Week draws worldwide attention to light pollution, promotes simple solutions and celebrates the irreplaceable beauty of a natural night.
High school student Jennifer Barlow started International Dark Sky Week (IDSW) in 2003. In explaining why she founded the event, Barlow said, “I want people to be able to see the wonder of the night sky without the effects of light pollution. The universe is our view into our past and our vision into the future. I want to help preserve its wonder.”
Canoecopia 2024 includes presentations on protecting our Starry Skies, paddling the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore
If paddling the amazing sea caves in the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore is on your bucket list, we invite you to see us at Canoecopia in Madison, Wisconsin, March 8-10, 2024. This annual event includes more than 100 educational presentations and clinics on kayaking, canoeing and related topics, including presentations by Friends Executive Director Jeff Rennicke and Ranger Steve Ballou of the National Park Service. You’ll also be able to learn from the experts what gear you need to safely explore the islands.
Reading the sacred skies: new book offered by Friends
peaks to both the human connection to the night sky and hopes for its protection.
Spirits Dancing: The Night Sky, Indigenous Knowledge, & Living Connections to the Cosmos features the photography of Travis Novitsky and text by Annette S. Lee. Novitsky, a member of the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, uses his lens to capture the awe and wonder of the northern lights. Lee’s, both an astrophysicist and an artist, uses her text to range across the universe of night sky topics from indigenous knowledge to the science of northern lights and the responsibility of all to help keep our skies dark enough to experience them.
Bayfield’s Carnegie Library embraces dark sky protection with planned lighting changes
Bayfield Carnegie Library’s motto is “A compass for curious minds.” One of the primary goals of library director Teresa Weber is to enlighten the public. Right now, Teresa is also trying to “enlighten” the walkways leading to the library without negatively impacting the dark skies over the city. Teresa recently spoke with Friends of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore board member Neil Howk about this upcoming project. Neil also serves on the library board.
Stories that capture the wonder and the possibilities of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore are most-read in 2023
As we raise a glass to embrace the new year, we look back fondly on the momentus year that was 2023 for Friends of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore and for the park we love. Thanks to your support, hard work by a growing team of passionate volunteers and by the Friends leadership team, we have a lot to celebrate.
With your support we helped more people discover the islands, learn about them, and work to protect them than ever before. We set a record for membership, did more outreach trips, more programs, and successfully completed the largest initiative in our organization’s history: Access for All. And there is even more to celebrate about the park and the people who make good things happen for a quarter million visitors each year.
We hope you enjoy this countdown of the top ten stories of 2023 on the Friends of the Apostle Islands website as a great way to start.
Treasures of the night: Friends to focus on protecting the night sky over the Apostle Islands in 2024 and beyond
“One of our priority issues for 2024 and beyond,” Rennicke says, “will be to look at the potential for protecting our dark sky resources here in the Islands through the identification and monitoring of light pollution, public outreach, increasing awareness, and more.”
Northern lights celebrated during 6th annual Aurora Summit at Red Cliff
Begun in 2017, the Aurora Summit is an annual gathering and celebration with a mission of helping “people of all backgrounds and experience levels view, photograph, and understand the Northern Lights, while also developing an appreciation for the surrounding art, culture, science and photography of this rare natural phenomenon.”
“Discover the night” in the Apostle Islands during International Dark Sky Week
30 miles away from the mainland, Devils Island and Outer Island offer some incredible views of the Milky Way – and if you’re very fortunate, the spectacular northern lights – thanks to some of the darkest skies in Wisconsin. In fact, most of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore offers great night sky viewing too, although when you look toward the mainland communities, you’ll see the nighttime glow from city lights. That glow is visible from many miles away.
Like being inside of a diamond: Apostle Islands shimmer with northern lights
On the night of March 23, 2023, the sky over the northern United States glittered in one of the strongest displays of northern lights in decades, visible as far south as northern Missouri. In the Apostle Islands, clear skies and just a sliver of moon, meant perfect viewing conditions.
And the sky danced – northern lights put on a show in the Apostle Islands
The northern lights, or the “aurora borealis,” is one of the treasures of the dark skies over these islands.
The Apostle Islands after dark – celebrating our night sky
It’s dark sky week around the globe… a perfect time to explore the night sky above the Islands and consider dark sky designation.