The Astronomers of the Verde Valley will be partnering with the city of Cottonwood’s Community Development Department to host the Old Town Star Party on Friday, June 30, from dark until 10:30 p.m. The free event will start immediately after the Old Town Music and the Market ends for the day with a performance by the classic rock band Room Zero.
“People should come for two reasons,” Astronomers vice president Dave Norton said. “Education of what’s visible that night. And there are wonderful things up in the heavens. But many are not close enough to us to see with the naked eye, and you don’t have to buy a telescope. Just come to the party and use the scopes that astronomers have, and we enjoy showing the heavens to anybody who’s interested, especially kids.”
Mars and Venus will be viewable that night and there will be opportunities to see deep-sky objects such as galaxies and nebulae, weather permitting. Cottonwood is encouraging all “with a curiosity of the constellations and night sky” to attend.
“We’ll have a couple of tables set up with brochures and [be] answering questions about dark skies and what it means,” Cottonwood assistant city planner Clover Pinion said. “At the last star party we did, five different telescopes were set up … It’s pretty casual.”
One of the stipulations cities must make to maintain their International Dark Sky Communities certification, which Cottonwood has had since 2019, is to hold at least two annual events such as the star party to help promote the program and educate their communities.
On Saturday, Oct. 14, Cottonwood will be hosting an event for the upcoming solar eclipse, with more details to be announced.
Cottonwood Dark Sky Initiatives
As part of its pursuit of dark sky initiatives, the city will be trying to bring all residents and businesses into compliance with the city’s Section 408 Outdoor Lighting Code within the next five years and is informing people of this effort through these events and using literature included in utility bills.
“2028 is our goal to get everybody on board,” Pinion said. “All new builds are required to follow this. So with anything that’s already built, we’re going to do our best to get everybody in compliance. [But] it’s not like we’re going to go around and make people do it.” Pinion explained that when residents are remodeling a property or replacing light fixtures, the city will then ask them to make modifications in accordance with the ordinance.
Cottonwood also anticipates making all of its own lighting fixtures dark-sky compliant by the end of the calendar year, after running into supply issues caused by the COVID- 19 pandemic response measures. The city started the year with 21 lighting fixtures in need of replacement and retrofitting at Riverfront Ball Field, the 6th Street police station and several other locations. The most common issue with these lights was their color temperature being too high.
“We do have stipulations as far as your light should be shielded. The most [lighting can have] is 3,000 kelvins,” Pinion said. “The lumens depends if [a light is] shielded. There’s not like an initiative … that’s based on the size of your property.”
Cottonwood has created a Dark Sky Committee of community members in recent years that has expanded from one to six members. Additionally, the Community Development Department, which oversees the initiative, has also gone through rebuilding its staff levels.
“We plan on having more informational booths at events throughout the year,” Pinion said. “They also help with our actual dark sky meeting. We do those quarterly and so they help keep track of those. But the big thing [for the committee] is to help, get the word out into the community and educate our citizens.”
Residents who are interested in joining the Dark Sky Committee can contact Pinion at (928) 634-5505 ext. 3314. To learn more about dark sky communities, visit cottonwoodaz.gov/747/Dark-Sky-Community.
