Welcome to Dark Sky Country

 Currently, eight members are steering the TDSA as a committee of the Santa Cruz Valley Citizens Council. The SCVCC board and its membership provided strong support for our IDSC application. Now we must protect our precious dark sky for its own sake and to maintain the designation as an IDSC. Among the forms of pollution, water, air, land, noise and light, light pollution is the easiest to control. 

• Every single living thing in our fragile Sonoran environment.  
• Astronomers conducting research at the F. L. Whipple Observatory and the many amateur astronomers who regularly visit our area 
• Astro tourists, who add to economic development and expand the tourist season from fall-winter to year-round.

  We are collaborating with the Tubac Presidio and Tumacácori Parks to hold dark-sky related events. 

 The potential threat of uncontrolled light pollution led residents to coalesce in efforts to protect Tubac’s pristine night sky. Members of the Tubac Dark Sky Committee made sky quality measurements, inventoried outdoor public lighting, and took steps to become an International Dark Sky Community. Residents, local government, and businesses worked to enact an improved outdoor lighting code. This code and ongoing efforts of the Tubac Dark Sky Committee will minimize light pollution, protect dark skies, reduce energy consumption, and ensure that pioneering astronomical work at the Whipple Observatory continues. 

We are here to help! Please email to soazcomms@gmail.com.