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.
Photo: Rowdy Winters
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
In Texas Hill Country, darkness enlightens and inspires
The city of Blanco sits on the edge of darkness, and it’s trying to stay there. Nestled in the rural Hill Country of Central Texas, the 1,700-person town is growing – but locals are wary of losing the longtime neighbor they all share: the neighbor that lives overhead....
Hill Country ‘snapshots’ captured in 2023 calendar
The 2022 winners in the "Snapshot of the Hill Country" photo contest have been chosen, and you can hang their work on your wall with a 2023 calendar. The Hill Country Alliance contest "challenged photographers to capture the fleeting beauty of life" in the region,...
Central Texas home to all 5 of state’s dark-sky communities
Central Texas lies within the main corridor of North American bird migration with flocks of aviators flying south for the winter and vice versa for the summer. But despite the innate directional awareness, some birds can get confused or harmed by lights shining in our...
‘The Olympics of astronomy’: Travis County gears up for 2024 solar eclipse
Travis County officials are gearing up for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity in 2024, as a total solar eclipse is expected to pass over the Central Texas region. A total solar eclipse will pass over the Hill Country region on April 8, 2024, from 1:32-1:41 p.m. The...