Nature is one thing that never ceases to amaze me. Prior to the onset of the pandemic, I often camped. So, after a year of staring at my computer screen and not being able to see more than a handful of stars each night, venturing into the vast natural beauty that is Mojave Trails National Monument and gazing up at the ink black skies and the awe-inspiring beauty of the Milky Way on our field excursions, I couldn’t help but feel the way so many of us do.… incredibly lucky and also very, very small.
Research by WISDOM interns help us understand the quality and the importance of the Mojave Desert’s dark night skies. Last fall a cohort of three college women began monitoring the night sky quality in the western portion of Mojave Trails National Monument. Their research will help the Bureau of Land Management in its effort to work toward International Dark Sky support for the National Monument.
In February 2021, MDLT’s Dark Night Sky Measurement Project finished a six-month long survey of night sky quality in Mojave Trails National Monument. Women In Science Discovering Our Mojave (WISDOM) interns were able to contribute vital scientific research in the monument.