About FDSC

Our Mission

The purpose of FDSC is to celebrate, promote, and protect the glorious dark skies of Flagstaff and Northern Arizona through successful dark sky practices:

⦁ Developing and hosting public events to spread awareness of the beauty and value of the night sky.
⦁ Advocating for best practices for outdoor nighttime lighting to preserve dark skies while maintaining lighting effectiveness.
⦁ To provide regional, national, and global leadership through the example of “The Flagstaff Solution,” the local successes achieved in dark sky awareness and protection through effective policies and practices.

The Flagstaff Dark Skies Coalition is a group of people and organizations that seeks to knit dark sky values, awareness and protection into all aspects of our society. FDSC is governed by a Board of Directors, and is open to members who support the mission and goals of the organization.

Flagstaff is the First International Dark-Sky City – designated in 2001, and has achieved unparalleled success in night sky protection. Flagstaff’s night skies have 90% less light pollution than other cities of its size – the Milky Way is visible from nearly everywhere in this city of ~70,000 residents. We seek to provide information and guidance on the critical elements underlying this success that others may learn from our example and aspire to real quantifiable improvement to their night skies. We provide quality guidance, through example and sound information, on policy, science and process to enable others to join Flagstaff in reaching the goal of dark sky protection – dark skies.

FDSC was founded in 1999, became a chapter of the International Dark-Sky Association in 2001, and an independent Arizona nonprofit in 2021. There is a monthly general membership meeting on the third Wednesday of each month. Contact us for further information.

Board of Directors

Bylaws

To celebrate, promote, and protect the glorious dark skies of Flagstaff and northern Arizona.