Since the advent of incandescent light, humans have been casting away darkness with reckless abandon. Global light emissions have risen at an average rate of 2.2 percent annually since 2012, such that 99 percent of today’s North American and European populations now live under light-polluted skies. In an ever-brightening world, the Bare Dark Sky Observatory stands out even more for being so superlatively stygian. This public observatory crests a 2,700-foot high peak in a particularly undeveloped stretch of the Blue Ridge Mountains outside of Asheville, North Carolina. The facility, managed…
