Get Involved with Night Skies Preservation
Working with Your Community
There are many ways to get involved in night sky preservation, from improvements at your home, to working with your neighbors, to rallying your community and setting it on the right path as it grows. Learn more about how Hill Country Alliance and local communities are preserving our region’s night skies and how you can get involved below.
Hill Country Alliance Recognition Programs
Join the ever-expanding group of landowners, businesses, and communities that have pledged to preserve the Hill Country night sky. Read on and become a Night Sky Steward, learn more about our Night Sky Friendly Business, or join our Neighborhood Recognition Programs.
Night Sky Friendly Neighborhood Recognition Program
This program recognizes subdivisions and neighborhoods that adopt the County Subdivision and Night Sky Friendly Neighborhood outdoor lighting policy into their homeowners agreements or deed restrictions. For more information or for assistance working with subdivision developers in your county to preserve Hill Country night skies, email info@hillcountryalliance.org.
Night Sky Friendly Business Recognition Program
The Night Sky Friendly Business Recognition Program is a cooperative program between some Hill Country Chambers of Commerce and the Hill Country Alliance to recognize businesses and organizations that have night sky-friendly outdoor lighting and to encourage others to follow suit.
Learn more about the Night Sky Business Recognition Program and how you can bring it to your County.
Night Sky Stewards
Join the Hill Country Night Stewards, a group of landowners, businesses and communities who have pledged their commitment to protecting the night skies.
Friends of the Night Sky Groups
Hill Country Friends of the Night Sky groups are the local voices for night sky preservation in our region. They are the educators, the advocates, and the conveners that work with schools, chambers of commerce, local governments, and other community partners to advance night skies preservation at the local level and help to establish local ordinances, resolutions, and dark sky designations.
The Hill Country Alliance is here to support all of the Friends of the Night Sky groups and to help establish new groups where they do not yet exist. Please connect with the existing groups through the links below. If you are interested in learning more about starting your own Friends of the Night Sky group, explore this helpful presentation from Blanco County Friends of the Night Sky.
If you want help starting a Friends group in your county, or you simply want to learn more, email us at info@hillcountryalliance.org. We would love to work with you!
Other Ways to Get Involved
Hill Country Night Sky Month
October is Hill Country Night Sky Month, an annual celebration of our region’s night skies and of the hard work that Hill Country communities do to preserve it. Check out the Hill Country Night Sky Month page to learn more!
International Dark Sky Association
Join the Texas Chapter of the International Dark Sky Association and get support from the worldwide network of IDA Advocates. Help your community become an IDA Dark Sky Place through the International Dark-Sky Association Dark-Sky Places Program. This program works to encourage neighborhoods, communities, parks and protected areas around the world to preserve and protect night skies through responsible lighting policies and public education. If you need support in applying for one of these designations, contact the Hill Country Alliance at info@hillcountryalliance.org.
Neighborhood Advocacy
The IDA Texas ‘Be a Star’ award offers an easy way to evaluate your own property’s outdoor lighting and show your support for the cause. Download the ‘Be a Star’ award application here. If you want to engage your neighbors about their lighting, this sample neighbor letter, offers a good way to begin as well as the IDA Home Lighting Assessment.
Citizen Science
Participation in citizen science has become an increasingly popular and fun way to be involved in important scientific research and help night sky conservation efforts. Visit Globe at Night and Lost at Night to learn how you can contribute to light pollution research through citizen science.
Recent Night Sky News
Which Texas cities could see nearly 500K tourists during the total eclipse?
With three months until a total solar eclipse passes over Texas on April 8, many people are making final preparations. Between 931,000 and 3,725,000 are expected to travel to see the eclipse within the United States, according to GreatAmericanEclipse.com. Which cities...
Wimberley’s Dark Sky Place of the Year award could mean bigger eclipse crowds
The City of Wimberley was recognized as Dark Sky Place of the Year by the nonprofit organization DarkSky International earlier this month. The city is now planning for more tourists looking to catch a glimpse of the stars and celestial events in Texas Hill Country....
UTSA and Harvard bring eclipse to visually impaired Texans with LightSound
While there’s been a lot of talk of eclipse glasses and watch parties and as so many Texans prepare to look up at the sky Saturday for the partial solar eclipse, there’s a group of Lone Star residents who can’t experience the myth-shrouded phenomenon: the visually...
Eclipse roundtables ‘like preparing for a hurricane’ in the Hill Country
DRIPPING SPRINGS, Texas (KXAN) — The Hill Country Alliance, a non-profit focused on conserving and protecting the Texas Hill Country, will host the latest of its Hill Country Eclipse Roundtables on July 25th. The total solar eclipse, happening on April 8th, 2024, is...