Night Sky Tourist Podcast
Take a journey with me to discover fascinating night sky destinations, explore cultural star stories, learn about protecting our dark skies, and take guided naked-eye tours across the night sky.Episodes
138- Keweenaw Mountain Lodge with John Mueller
Some places feel special precisely because they're hard to reach. At the tip of Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula, a lodge built during the Great Depression by a federal jobs program sits under skies so dark you feel truly far from city lights and noise. Now privately...
Episode 137- Badlands National Park with Eric Veach and Marissa Marshall
Badlands National Park just earned its International Dark Sky Park certification, and that's reason enough to celebrate. But there's so much more happening out there. In this episode, I sit down with Park Superintendent Eric Veach and Marissa Marshall, Executive...
Episode 136- Kithship and the Art of Noticing with Steve Dudrow
What does it really mean to look up at the night sky? In this episode, we look at what it means to really know the place where we live and to be known by it. This relationship with place has a name in the Old English – kithship. And since half of the human experience...
Episode 135- Arizona’s Pipe Spring National Monument with Nickie Wheeler and Mark Gleason
Pipe Spring National Monument sits on the lands of the Kaibab Paiute Nation in northern Arizona, and the night sky there carries a story most visitors never expect. The Kaibab Paiute Nation holds a remarkable distinction as the world's first sovereign nation to earn...
Episode 134- Nightfaring with Megan Eaves-Egenes
After years of traveling and living across the globe, Megan Eaves-Egenes has made seeking out the night sky a way of life. Her new book, Nightfaring: In Search of the Disappearing Darkness, weaves her personal experiences with the star stories of cultures around the...
Episode 133- Meet the Birds at Wild Wings Festival
How old were you when you learned that many birds migrate at night? There’s an extraordinary place where you can see thousands of birds resting and feeding during the Spring and Fall migrations near Choteau, Montana, and this episode will leave you itching to take a...
Episode 132- Globe at Night Project with Connie Walker
Citizen science is a really cool way to engage with nature in a way that contributes toward our understanding of things, and Globe at Night is a super cool citizen science project you can do while stargazing. As it celebrates its 20th year, Connie Walker shares the...
Episode 131- Folk Tales of the Night with Chris Salisbury
At a time when social media stories and reels are a few seconds long and pull us away from what’s happening in the real world around us, storytelling is more important than ever. Chris Salisbury joins us to explore his book Folk Tales of the Night: Stories for...
Episode 130- Supermoons, Blood Moons and Blue Moons with Ken Cotter
You’ve heard the media hype up Supermoons, Blood Moons, and Blue Moons, but what the heck are they, and are they worth the effort to see them? In this episode, our Night Sky Tourist Star Dude, Ken Cotter, joins us to answer your questions about these intriguing lunar...
Episode 129- Sunset and Sips at Taliesin West with Aija Cave
Night Sky Tourist partners with many organizations and venues, but Taliesin West is definitely the most unique. Located in Scottsdale, Arizona, Taliesin West was the winter home of famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright. This UNESCO World Heritage Site offers self-guided...
Episode 128- Meet the Night Sky Tourist Star Dudes
Night Sky Tourist is more than just this podcast. We are also a stargazing business based in Fountain Hills, Arizona, on the edge of the Phoenix Metro Area. Being in a certified International Dark Sky Community means that we have something special to offer when it...
Episode 127- Biking Across the Bortle Scale in the Wild Dark with Craig Childs
Award-winning author Craig Childs joins me to chat about his brand new book, The Wild Dark: Finding the Night Sky in the Age of Light. We talk about his adventure of biking across the Bortle Scale from the blindingly bright Las Vegas Strip to the darkest night of the...
Episode 126- Place-Based Cross-Quarter Day Celebrations with Mariah Gladstone- Indigikitchen
Tired of living disconnected from nature's rhythms while racing through an endless calendar of obligations? This episode explores how Cross-Quarter Days—the forgotten midpoints between solstices and equinoxes—can transform your year from four rushed seasons into eight...
Episode 125- Scorpions, Scorpius and Star Stories
Scorpius dominates the summer night skies and captures the imagination of people around the world. The red “heart of the scorpion,” Antares, twinkles brightly, and a nearby star cluster is visible to the naked eye from dark locations. Meanwhile, summer is scorpion...
Episode 124- Kosmos Stargazing Resort and Spa in Colorado
Astrotourism is barreling through the tourism industry like a freight train, and one visionary, Gamal Jadue Zalaqett, has brought his dream for the Kosmos Stargazing Resort & Spa to life in the San Luis Valley in Colorado. Located just south of Great Sand Dunes...
Episode 123- How One Revolutionary Tent is Transforming Camping Under the Stars
There’s a new tent that's flipping the stargazing experience for campers on its head. Joe Bissonnette, the creator of this extraordinary tent, shares his expert tips for finding the best dark sky locations for camping, choosing the right lighting for nighttime camping...
Episode 122- Stargazing River Rafting with Tom Beckett
Take your next stargazing adventure to another level with stargazing river rafting. Tom Beckett shares what it’s like to stargaze from the canyons after a day spent on the river. As a river guide with Holiday River Expeditions, Tom introduces rafters to the wonders of...
Episode 121- Nevada’s Park to Park in the Dark Highway with Liz Woosley
Nevada probably has more land under pristine dark skies than any other state. And if you love an epic road trip, you’ll want to get your map and pack your bags for the Park to Park in the Dark Highway. In this episode, I chat with Liz Woolsey, owner of Stargazer Inn...
Episode 120- 7 Surprising Urban Astrotourism Experiences
Think you need to escape the city to connect with the cosmos? Think again! In this week's episode, I reveal seven unexpected ways to experience the night sky and astronomy while visiting urban destinations across North America. From touching billion-year-old...
Episode 119- 100 Nights of a Lifetime with Stephanie Vermillion
In this episode, I welcome travel journalist Stephanie Vermillion to discuss her captivating new National Geographic book, 100 Nights of a Lifetime: The World's Ultimate Adventures After Dark. Stephanie's work takes us beyond traditional stargazing to explore...