dark skies,
enlightening experience
A beautiful
starry sky peeks
through the
canopy of trees
that shroud
the road into
the Headlands
International
Dark Sky Park
in Emmet
County, Mich.
Each October,
the park hosts
The Headlands
Challenge
program. During
the event,
visitors are
invited to leave
their cars at the
entrance to the
park and walk
the one-mile
candlelit path
through the
woods to the
dark sky viewing
area.
By MARY STEWART ADAMS
H
COURTESY OF
ADAM SMITH
OF SYNEDOCHE
DESIGN
28
Guest Columnist
umanity has always been thrilled
and challenged by the discovery of
new and never-before seen objects
and phenomena in the celestial world.
Nowhere in contemporary culture is this
experience more demonstrated than through
the prolific work of David Levy, a brilliant
research and discovery artist with a poet’s
heart. Not content with mere binoculars and
telescopes, David also makes use of poetry
and prose to build a silver ladder into the
night that enthusiasts of all ages may climb.
As an artist, David’s medium is the world
of stars surrounding the Earth, where
comets and asteroids beat out an irregular
rhythm that only wants discovery in order
to find its harmonious place within the
catalog of human-cosmic encounters. To
his credit is the discovery of more than
20 comets, 42 asteroids and innumerable
poetic references from throughout the ages
of man, joined with the stars through more
than 30 books.
The Headlands International Dark Sky
Park in Emmet County, Mich., recently
enjoyed David’s talents and enthusiasm
during an exciting evening program on
his “Life and Hard Times as a Searcher of
Comets.”
David set the stage with an inspiring
poetry recitation that was followed by
pieces of his biography woven through
with historic references, music, stunning
images and even clips from the 1960s
television western series “Bonanza,”
which specifically referenced the early life
of astrophysicist Albert Abram Michelson,
who became the first American to receive
the Nobel Prize in Science in 1907.
The Headlands property is situated on the
rugged shores of upper Lake Michigan,
where the Straits of Mackinac meet the
great lake in sometimes treacherous
waters. In May 2011, the Emmet County
Park became only the 6th International
Dark Sky Park in the United States and
only the 9th in the world, providing free
Sky’s
Up
Sky’s
Up
COURTESY OF MARY STEWART ADAMS
David Levy, center, poses with Mary Stewart Adams and Bryan Shumaker at the Headlands International Dark Sky Park in Emmet County, Mich.
access to an unpolluted night sky for
stargazers of all ages and skill level.
The setting, though rugged, was ideal for
David’s talk, where more than 200 guests
were transported by trolley through the
old growth forest that distinguishes the
property in northern Michigan to the large
festival tent that has served as a “program
facility” while the county completes
construction plans for an observatory
building that will meet the demands of use
now being experienced at the park.
The tent was hung with lanterns and
the moist autumn air was hung with
anticipation for David’s stories of how he
was inspired to his life’s work and what has
resulted from his unwavering devotion to
the art of discovery. Guests traveled from
throughout the state and the region to hear
David’s talk. After boisterous conversations
shared in the long line of fans waiting for
autographs at the book table, guests were
treated to deep clear skies with the Milky
Way arcing high overhead.
In his play “As You Like It,” Shakespeare
wrote, “All the world’s a stage, and all the
men and women merely players.” These
famous words imply that the audience is
the world of planets and stars — looking
ever on with interest toward Earth and
the activity taking place here as though it
were but a mighty drama played out for the
entertainment of some higher power.
In the poetic device of the bard, this shift
in audience suggests that rather than man
on Earth seeking comets out there, it is
the comets out there that seek man, and in
David Levy’s case, they have found a star.
ooo
Mary Stewart Adams is a star lore historian
and