Earlier this month it was apparent that there would be one final night of exceptionally clear skies before the summer monsoon pattern set up and skies would be cloudy more often than clear. I thought another night sky image with reflections of the stars in water might be interesting so I ended up at Lake Mary a few miles southeast of Flagstaff. I was surprised to see how much light pollution there was in the southern sky. This stray light is coming from Phoenix, located over 100 miles to the south. There is so much light that it is even reflected in the lake — as are a few of the stars.

A very short distance to the north of where this image was taken is the Anderson Mesa astronomical station. It’s hard to believe that they can still gather useful observations of the sky with this much light pollution. Finding truly dark skies is becoming a global challenge.