PORTLAND, Maine — A team of international scientists presented a report in 2016 with the depressing finding that one-third of the people in the world and 80 percent of the residents of North America can’t see the Milky Way.

“It’s a big part of our connection to the cosmos,” a scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said at the time. “And it’s been lost.”

The culprit is light pollution, which is ubiquitous in towns and cities with even modest population density. To get away from light pollution, you need to get away from people. One place where you can do that is northern Maine.

On Sept. 27, the nonprofit group Friends of Katahdin Woods & Waters will turn an eye to some of the darkest skies east of the Mississippi with its annual Stars Over Katahdin stargazin

See Full Page