2025 OTM History Highlight

The Old Trails Museum offers its free 2025 History Highlight on Saturday, April 19, at 5 pm in the La Posada Hotel Ballroom, 303 East Second Street. Kevin Schindler, the historian at Lowell Observatory, will present Dark Skies over Arizona followed by a question-and-answer session.

There’s nothing like standing under a dark, star-spangled night sky to quiet the mind and reduce stress, to share an experience of awe with family and friends, and to inspire creative thoughts. Yet such dark skies are a disappearing resource, with only 20% of the world living in a place where the center of our Milky Way Galaxy is visible.

Arizona knows a thing or two about this problem and has played a leading role in reducing artificial light pollution. Using beautiful astronomical images, this program will illustrate the benefits of dark skies, how Arizona has helped lead the charge to protect them, and how we all can do our part in reducing artificial light pollution.

Kevin Schindler has worked as the historian at Lowell Observatory for 29 years, serving as an active member of the Flagstaff history and science communities. He has authored nine books on history and astronomy, including Historic Tales of Flagstaff (with Michael Kitt). He has given more than 1,000 presentations and written more than 600 magazine and newspaper articles, including a bi-weekly astronomy column, “View from Mars Hill,” for the Arizona Daily Sun newspaper. Fun fact: Schindler has both an asteroid and a fossil crab named after him. 

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