DARK SKIES MATTER
Published in the May 23, 2026 issue.
To Jeremy Evans, dark skies are “like an endangered species.” That’s why he never misses a night looking out at the stars.
In the last decade, he said he has watched the skies he photographed for most of his adult life become flooded with artificial objects and light. In scenes that were once pristine star landscapes, warm glows from cities hundreds of miles away now illuminate the horizon, and satellites make it nearly impossible to shoot a clean time lapse.
Evans, a local photographer, filmmaker and delegate for DarkSky International, spoke Tuesday night at Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Laboratory about the rapid loss of dark skies and what communities can still do to preserve them.
The modern outlook for dark skies, he said, is a far cry from what it was like shooting on film in the 1990s.
“When I was wandering around public lands or national parks with a camera and tripod in the ’90s, people would ask, ‘What are you photographing? It’s dark,’” he recalled.
Evans said he was among the earliest generation of dedicated night sky photographers.
As a child, he dreamed of becoming an astronaut, but poor eyesight and hearing loss in one ear ended that possibility early.
Instead, he turned to photography.
He attended film school near Kennedy Space Center, where he said he managed to secure an all-access press pass by repeatedly lobbying the public affairs office.
That experience launched a career in the film industry, largely based in Southern California, while also cementing a lifelong attachment to dark skies found almost anywhere outside Southern California.
According to DarkSky International, light pollution is the “excessive, misdirected or inappropriate use of artificial outdoor light.” It comes from streetlights, parking lots, stadiums and commercial development, but Evans said the problem increasingly extends beyond Earth itself with the rise of satellite constellations and orbital infrastructure.
“Light pollution used to come from the ground up,” he said. “Now it’s coming from the sky down.”
He added that astronomers now estimate that within the next decade, one out of every 15 visible points of light in the night sky could be an artificial satellite or spacecraft.
A 2016 study found that artificial light pollutes the night sky for more than 80% of the world’s population, and roughly one-third of humanity can no longer see the Milky Way at night because of artificial sky glow. Scientists later estimated that between 2011 and 2022, average night sky brightness increased by nearly 10% per year.
Today, most humans now live under skies they cannot see.
The consequences extend beyond visibility. Artificial light disrupts animal migration patterns, contributes to the deaths of millions of birds each year and alters the flowering cycles of plants.
He pointed to sea turtle hatchlings as one example. Along brightly lit coastlines, hatchlings can mistake artificial lights for moonlight reflecting off the ocean and crawl inland instead of toward the water.
It also affects people. Exposure to blue light at night suppresses melatonin production, disrupting sleep cycles and reducing serotonin levels, which Evans said can negatively impact human health and well-being.
Still, he argued there is reason for optimism.
“Light pollution is one of those rare pollutions that actually costs less to solve than it does to do nothing about it,” he said.
Simple changes, such as installing shielded light fixtures that direct light downward instead of outward or upward, can dramatically reduce sky glow while also conserving energy. Some local governments, including Mono County, already require certain dark-sky compliant lighting measures.
Similarly, Evans said choosing warmer, red-toned bulbs instead of harsh blue-white lighting can significantly reduce light pollution and help preserve dark skies.
Addressing concerns about safety, Evans argued that excessive artificial lighting can actually make it harder for people to see at night. Bright lights prevent human eyes from fully adjusting to darkness, creating deeper shadows and glare where potential hazards can remain hidden.
“Humans are quite remarkable,” he said. “If you spend 20 minutes in the dark with just a red light or no light at all, you’d be surprised by how great night vision you have.
As an added benefit, Evans said darker nighttime environments help predators like bats and owls thrive, naturally reducing rodent populations around homes and communities.
For Evans, however, the issue is also deeply personal in how it shapes his work in the field
Evans plans trips around moon phases, schedules backpacking routes around dark skies and often carries more than 30 pounds of camera equipment into the backcountry.
“I live and die by the moon calendar,” he said.
He recommended venturing out three or four days before or after a new moon, when the sky remains darkest for the longest stretch of the night.
Over the last three decades, Evans has photographed meteor showers, Milky Way panoramas and rare “moonbows,” or lunar rainbows, created by moonlight refracting through mist.
In 2009, he spent hours hiking and waiting near Yosemite Falls hoping to capture one on film. After initially striking out, he packed up to leave before noticing the faint rainbow forming in the waterfall mist. He reloaded his camera and spent the night experimenting with exposures until finally capturing the image on a decades-old film camera.
“The best camera you have is the one in your pocket,” he said.
