Hear his podcast on the park’s Web site: http://www.nps.gov/grca/photosmultimedia/upload/20070128stars.mp3

Tyler Nordgren, associate professor of physics at the University of Redlands spent his sabbatical year studying our national parks’ night skies, and has become the voice of astronomy for the popular Grand Canyon National Park.

Nordgren wrote and recorded information for park visitors on the night sky stop of a new cell phone audio tour of the Grand Canyon, which he visited last month on his most recent national park stop.

After advising listeners to adjust their eyes to the dark, Nordgren covers a range of topics including constellations, galaxies and the beauty of hydrogen gas clouds. Monthly updates will be done to insure an accurate recording of the ever-changing skies. Nordgren’s audio tour can be heard by dialing (585) 672-2608 and then pressing 4.

A recorded podcast of Nordgren’s night sky stop is also available through the park’s Web site, www.nps.gov/grca/photosmultimedia/rangerminute.htm, and can also be found on iTunes.

During his visit to the Grand Canyon, Nordgren also conducted training sessions for the park interpretation staff. In his blog hosted on The Planetary Society’s Web site, Nordgren comments on the increasing number of visitors at the Grand Canyon and their interest in ranger- guided full moon walks.

“One of my duties as a park service volunteer here is to train the entire interpretation staff on aspects of the night sky so that they will all be able to give night sky talks. This is a far cry from most of the other parks I have visited, where astronomy talks are the province of one or two rangers who happen to have an interest in the topic.

Part of the reason for this difference at Grand Canyon is the sheer number of visitors coming through this place. On a random cold winter day here I have seen far more visitors than other parks I visited in the height of summer. By summer, the numbers will be at least three times that, and multiple talks given by multiple rangers leaving from the same spot on the same evening will be necessary.”

The Redlands astronomer is in the midst of visiting 12 national parks over 12 months. Spending one to three weeks in each park, Nordgren is on a mission to talk to experts and park visitors, giving public lectures and looking at the cultural and geological connections between the parks and the night sky. 

Nordgren’s project is documented on The Planetary Society’s Web site, www.planetary.org/parks, where readers can follow his journey from Alaska’s Denali National Park and Chugach National Forest to New Mexico’s Chaco Culture National Historic Park, to the Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. Nordgren’s next stop will be Yellowstone National Park.

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