Great Basin National Park — an intergalactic planetarium
Great Basin National Park in Nevada is known for its dark skies. Photo/National Park Service
By Kyle Roerink, Las Vegas Sun
GREAT BASIN NATIONAL PARK — The 60-foot laser beam streaked like a lightsaber across the night sky, playing connect-the-dots with constellations in the plane of the Milky Way.
On a hillside 300 miles northeast of Las Vegas in the Great Basin National Park, Derek Demeter controlled the light with shifts of his wrist. Each movement sent the laser on a light-years’ long course.
It was 10pm on a recent weekend and 300 park guests craned their necks toward the heavens. Some peered through telescopes and others followed the vivid path of Demeter’s wand. Faces weren’t visible, but the stars, the Milky Way and distant galaxies were.