By SARA FURLONG

s.furlong@bradfordera.com

COUDERSPORT — In the dark skies of Potter County, lights of any kind are generally unwelcome — let alone spotlights.

But that’s exactly what has shone on the starlight sanctuary that is God’s Country, with the ‘Lights Out: Recovering Our Night Sky’ exhibit at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.

Greg Snowman of Coudersport is deeply familiar with the eternal nightscape, having conducted stargazing tours at Cherry Lights… page A-8

The night sky in Potter County as recorded by a professional videographer for an exhibit at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. Greg Snowman of Potter County Stargazing Tours assisted the Smithsonian team with the exhibit.

Photo courtesy of Greg Snowman

Greg Snowman of Potter County Stargazing Tours near the “Lights Out: Recovering Our Night Sky” exhibit at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. Snowman assisted a team from the renowned museum with several features of the exhibit.

Photo courtesy of Greg Snowman Springs State Park for several years before striking out on his own with Potter County Stargazing Tours, pcstargazingtours.com.

“It was just before COVID,” Snowman recalled of his first contact from the Smithsonian.

Jill Johnson, exhibit director, emailed the Potter County celestial scout, saying “Hey, my team and I are coming up to the area to do research about light pollution and we’d like to take your tour.”

Her team comprised an artist, an anthropologist for cultural connections and a night sky biologist who studies the circadian rhythm and how that affects life.

Snowman remembered, “They came up and the first night the weather didn’t cooperate. The second night, it was just one of those beautiful nights with the Milky Way high overhead.”

Not long after that, the pandemic brought the world nearly to a halt. But, a year or two later, with the exhibit running behind as a result, Snowman received another message.

“I get an email from Matt Dieterich, a videographer from Pittsburgh,” he recounted. “He works all around the world, but told me the Smithsonian team was adamant that his photos and time lapse had to be from that spot” — where the team previously visited.

What made Potter County so desirable for the renowned museum’s exhibit?

“I’ve been doing this for 15 years,” Snowman said, “and I get that question a lot. It may be a little bit of hype; I’ve heard it’s the darkest spot east of the Mississippi (River) and all this.

“And it is dark, but you can go to the Adirondacks or the North Woods of Maine … I tell people this is one of the most accessible dark sky spots for people.”

Dieterich and Snowman strategized about the best time to capture the heavens for the Smithsonian exhibit.

“The fall nights were so long, he got his Holy Grail shot — a 14-hour, one-shot time lapse of the night sky moving across. He did a whole 360, little theater experience.”

Shortly thereafter, Snowman received word that the exhibit was open and would run for two years on the venerable institution’s second floor.

“I kept going, ‘I’ve gotta get down there,’” Snowman said, adding he finally made it back in March.

“My joke was, I never thought my name would be in the Smithsonian with Harvard and NASA’s, but my font wasn’t as big as theirs on the sign,” he laughed.

While the temporary exhibit will soon wrap up, you can still find the associated Smithsonian Sidedoor podcast at naturalhistory. si.edu/exhibits/lights-out. The episode “talks with astronomers, ornithologists and historians to learn how we found ourselves surrounded by a glowing shroud of electricity, and asks how we can have the dark without giving up the light.”

“It was a well received exhibit there,” Snowman said. “It was almost a little surreal. It was nice to see the message that they’re trying to get across about light pollution and protecting the night sky. It’s the same one I also try to remind people of when I’m doing the tour.”

Snowman said visitors travel from all over, “up and down the East Coast,” New York City, Pittsburgh and other urban areas to experience Potter County’s dark skies. The Smithsonian’s website for the exhibit notes that one-third of the world’s population cannot see the Milky Way because of light pollution.

He shared a story about a night when people had traveled a significant distance to Coudersport’s astral preserve, only to have clouds move in over the cosmic vista.

“I said, ‘I’m so sorry. I know you drove so far. Hopefully it will clear up.’ And one woman said, ‘I don’t think you understand just how nice it is to sit out here in the quiet. Even watching the clouds just come in and out. That doesn’t happen in our lives anymore.’

“Somehow I think the people who live in this region take (the dark skies) for granted,” Snowman observed. “Like, ‘What’s the big deal?’ They don’t really understand what a precious resource that is.”