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"Regardless of  one's political leanings, through our art we bring awareness of the beauty to be found in our world."  At Gallery Moab we have had several artists showing the amazing light of the night skies in our region. Enjoy!"

The question on national monuments was posted on a night photographers blog site. The responses were varied with most leaning towards how wrong it was for President Trump to reduce the monuments. The search for dark skies is a passion for night photographers. This passion is usually best stated in their beautiful photography. They feel strongly about Southern Utah. Southern Utah is one of the best locations for night photography due to the lack of night pollution. It is amazing what the light of even a small building will give off! 

As artists our connection to nature and the stars runs deep. You could say the connection we strongly feel comes from our ancestors. Ancient peoples first looked up thousands of years ago, and the stars were there; pinpoints of light that seemed to slowly rotate around the Earth. The first astronomers also noticed the planets, the Moon and the Sun, and their motions across the night sky. 

  Reach for the Milky Way by Thea Nordling

The stars played a part in religious ceremonies, and navigators used them to travel at night, both over land and at sea. Early astronomers grouped the stars into constellations, and then used these to track the movement of the Sun and the planets. The motions of the stars over the course of a full year helped them build the first accurate calendars, to know when to plant fields and when to harvest.

 Delicate Splendor by Carolyn Tibbetts

The importance of our history and the environment we live in is crucial to our future. A good intelligent debate and different opinions is what makes our country so great. Everyone has a right to their own opinions. The problem with opinions is what the opinion is based on. If the opinion is based on fallacies does it not become a fallacy? From the world of politics, can any of us believe anything?  I believe Royce Bair has a better approach. Royce is educating people about night skies. I was fortunate enough to meet Royce and learn from him. I expected to learn about night photography, however he taught more than that. We need to pass on the passion that Royce and all of us share. We can use our art and passion for beauty, to educate and teach respect for what we all hold dear.

We all know that our Milky Way galaxy contains between 200 and 400 billion stars and that there could be as many as 500 billion galaxies out there with just as many stars. Yet those of us that live in southern Utah hear this quote so many times from people that live in the city

"I didn't know there were so many stars".

 Desert Nights by Robert McKendrick

Although a couple of dozen minor galaxies lie closer to our Milky Way, the Andromeda galaxy is the closest major galaxy to ours. Excluding the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, which can’t be seen from northerly latitudes, the Andromeda galaxy – also known as M31 – is the brightest galaxy in all the heavens. It’s the most distant thing you can see with your unaided eye, at 2.3 million light-years. To the eye, it appears as a smudge of light larger than a full moon. I did not know any of this until Royce taught it to me and shared his passion. Royce showed Andromeda to me the night we took this photo. Andromeda is little down from the top and to the right.

  Starry Night in Arches by Robin Straub

“The quality of place, the reaction to immediate contact with earth and growing things that have a fugal relationship with mountains and sky, is essential to the integrity of our existence on this planet,” the famous American photographer Ansel Adams wrote in his autobiography. From the romantic painters of the late 18th century to Adams to contemporary figures like Pedro Reyes and Agnes Denes, artists have long had a fascination — and deep respect — for the planet on which we exist.

“The question is not what you look at, but what you see.” 
― Henry David Thoreau