This is the landing page for the Dark Sky group in Frankfort. The group's aim is to reduce light pollution which affects migrating birds, nocturnal animals like moths and bats, and affects our ability to be awed by the night sky. 

Thanks to all who came out to to the Dark Sky Hayride! International Dark-Sky Week is celebrated all over this amazing planet the week of April 2- 8. Please keep your lights off from 11 pm to 6 am, use shades to keep your light inside your house, timers, motion lights and direct light only where it's really needed. Thank you to Frankfort Parks and Recreation for providing tractors and volunteers! 

Dark Sky Frankfort (DSF), a committee of the Frankfort Audubon Society, is hosting a Dark Sky Hayride from 7:30-9:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 3, at Leslie Morris Park at Fort Hill. 

Participants are asked to park in the Salvation Army parking lot at 517 Greenup Ave. in Blanton Acres across from Buffalo Trace Distillery. There will be wagons pulled by tractors — much like the Haunting on the Hill event — to take participants up to Fort Hill.

At Fort Hill, DSF committee members will share information about how artificial light impacts animals and humans, and what can be done to lessen the impact. The final stop for the wagon will be one that allows participants to view the night sky through a telescope.

The event is free and open to the public. Participants will be provided with materials about impacts and solutions they can implement, as well as links to helpful websites, including the new DarkSkyFrankfort.org site. Be sure to keep an eye out for two billboards DSF has erected for International Dark Sky week — April 2-8. The event will be canceled if there is heavy rain or dangerous weather.

DSF has been tasked with helping people understand the huge impact that artificial lighting at night (ALAN) has on animals and humans. 

The committee is focused on the safety of birds, especially during spring and fall migration periods, which in Kentucky are March through May for spring and September through October for fall migrants.

Some examples of migrating birds might be sandhill cranes in late winter, waterfowl in March, and April and May bring back songbirds like indigo buntings, orioles and many types of warblers, including the yellow-throated warbler, which is incorporated into the chapter’s logo because it’s believed that up to 10% of all yellow-throated warblers nest in Kentucky. Some migrants only fly over Kentucky on their way further north, or south in the fall, but will stop to rest and feed the bluegrass state.

You can find more information about Dark Sky at

https://darksky.org/     The home for Dark Sky International

National Audubon Society and International Dark-Sky Association Partner to Protect the Night Sky for Birds and People | Audubon  

For questions, more information, or to help contact Rachael Peake rpeake4@gmail.com 

We like this poem Night Migration from Hannah Fries (Hannah Fries ) (Used by permission) 

We sleep,
stumbling
through doorless dreams,
while over our rooftops
sky shivers with wings —
warblers, cuckoos,
herons and sparrows —
waves rising
on night’s cool breath.

We sleep
as they follow the stars
(hummingbird and wren)
high over shadowed earth,
trees clinging to rock,
cities curled in grief.
We close our windows,
bury our faces —

we sleep
and they speak:
buzz and whistle,
secret names
through air
tying each to each.

We sleep
as they fly
(imagine being lifted)
by moon and magnet,
over undulating sea
toward a place
(remember)
that echoes
in hallowed clearings,
in hollowed bones,
the song that pulls them
home.