Dark Sky: Where The World Ends And Sky Begins

New Zealand's Southern Lights' symphony of psychedelic colours have long entranced aurora hunters. To further boost astrotourism, New Zealand has launched the Dark Sky Project that is attracting stargazers and photographers alike.

- Triya Ghosh

For most urban dwellers around the world, notably in countries like India, seeing a dark sky in the night is an increasingly rare phenonmenon and a star-lit night sky seems to belong only to photos in coffee table books or on the internet.

As if the dust, automotive emissions and other forms of air pollution were not enough, cities across the world, especially in India, also suffer from yet another form of pollution that essentially makes seeing stars a distinct challenge, the city lights. As most cities are lit up through the night, the combination of light, dust and other pollutants in the air make it impossible to observe the stars from the cities, even with a telescope.

Increasingly urban denizens turn to remote rural areas or mountains to be able to enjoy a clear view of the sky, with millions of stars sparkling through the night. Tourists, especially those inclined towards astronomy and star gazing, are also increasingly looking for and heading to destinations they can get the best views of the starlit nights.

Spotting an opportunity to develop a niche, some countries like Chile and New Zealand that offer clean air and clear skies have begun to develop and position themselves as the world's best astrotourism destinations, and not without merit.

New Zealand has gone one step ahead of Chile and even launched a unique Dark Sky project to obtain a certification to be designated as International Dark Sky Place. New Zealand's tiny neighbour, Niue, which has just over 1600 people living on a coral island measuring 260 sqkm obtained its own certification in 2020.