Civilization is creeping up on the U.S. Naval Observatory. At risk, said USNO Director Dr. Paul Shankland, is its dark sky status, which is important to astronomers and astrophysicists, and to national security. “In a general sense, we are responsible for the celestial reference frame,” he said, which is a catalog of about a billion stars and takes many years to build. The stars are still used for navigation purposes, for spacecraft, space probes and satellites. Thousands of satellites are in … [Read more...] about Protecting Flagstaff’s Dark Skies around Naval Observatory