Oracle Night Sky Charm

Cody Fire, May 2025. Photo courtesy of Park Ranger Leonard Garcia.

Welcome to the 6th edition of “Oracle Night Sky Charm”. These monthly articles are intended to help you enjoy Oracle’s Night Sky. You will also learn why it is important to protect our Night Sky Heritage.

Wildfires, Climate Change, Night Sky

As everyone knows, two wildfires affected Oracle in May 2025. What many people do not realize is the relationship of Light Pollution to wildfires. Artificial Light at Night: State of the Science 2025 states “Wasted outdoor light at night is wasted energy. The world remains highly dependent on fossil fuels to generate electricity. Since light pollution represents a waste of energy, it also contributes directly to climate change..“ Global Climate Change is contributing to the increasing number and severity of wildfires worldwide, including here in Oracle. While bad lighting in Oracle is limited to just a few government, business, and residential locations, we need to do more to reduce our community's contribution to the worldwide problem and be a model for other communities. If your lights are turned on when there is no one around using those lights or if your lights are brighter than they need to be, both of which result in higher electricity use, you should correct your lights now. Then you won't have to wonder if your lights played a role the next time Oracle is threatened by a wildfire.

Many thanks to the firefighters, aircrews, and law enforcement for protecting our community! To those residents who lost their homes in the Cody Fire, keep looking up at our night sky. You will find it very therapeutic for your mental wellbeing as you begin your recovery.

You can learn more about protecting the Night Sky in last month’s Oracle Night Sky Charm. Also, watch this short interview done in May 2025 at Oracle State Park by ABC15 in Phoenix:

Click to watch the video.

Visible Planets

The bright planet Jupiter has left our evening sky, setting at about the same time as the Sun sets. Red planet Mars is still visible in the western sky, but is becoming lower each night. The planet Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun, appears low in the western sky after sunset as June ends. Bright Venus and fainter Saturn are visible in the eastern sky before sunrise.

The Milky Way

The “Summer Milky Way”, which is the band of billions of stars you see as you look towards the center of our Galaxy, rises in the southeastern sky about an hour after sunset as June ends. Rising four minutes earlier each night, it will be well-positioned for viewing in the early evening later this summer.

If there is something you would like discussed in “Oracle Night Sky Charm”, email Mike Weasner at mweasner@mac.com. Mike has been a volunteer at Oracle State Park since 2014 and is a past Vice President and past President of Friends of Oracle State Park.