Are you familiar with "dark-sky" cities? A dark-sky city is a town or city that prides itself on being able to see the night sky more clearly than most urban places thanks to dimmed lights at night. If that sounds appealing to you, you'll love to learn that there's a dark-sky city in Indiana!
Beverly Shores, Indiana is beautiful by day and magical by night.
Beverly Shores was founded in the 1920s by a Chicago real estate developer with big dreams of a huge resort community that never happened. The town became a dark-sky city in 2014.
By day, visitors and residents enjoy the views of Lake Michigan to the north and Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore to the south, west, and east.
It's a pretty small town, encompassing only about 5.8 square miles.
As recently as 2018, the population of Beverly Shores was listed as just 605 people.
Despite the fact that the number of permanent residents has been on a steady decline, the town definitely attracts sightseers from all over Indiana hoping to catch a glimpse of the incredible night sky.
All year round, cloud cover permitting, visitors treat themselves to a view of the incredible vastness of space.
Stars, galaxies, and planets are visible to the naked eye thanks to the dimmed-down lighting and dark-sky regulations.
Of course, to our eyes, these celestial bodies look like just vaguely-colored dots of light. The sheer number of them, though, is breathtaking.
If you're particularly curious, we strongly suggest that you bring a telescope to come observe the heavens.
The International Dark-Sky Association is based in Tucson, Arizona, and currently recognizes more than 130 places around the world as officially "dark-sky" certified.
Indiana is pretty special, considering that Beverly Shores was addition #7!
If you'd like to read more about the International Dark-Sky registry, you can check out their website here.
Have you ever been to a dark sky city? Did you see a million and one stars? Tell us about it in the comments!
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