Tyler Nordgren may just have the best job an Inlander can have. The University of Redlands professor is spending 12 months visiting national parks across the country, from Alaska to Arizona to Maine, to check out the night sky.

As we speak, Nordgren should be in Grand Teton National Park, having caught the lunar eclipse just the other day. You can travel with him in cyberspace by checking out his blog hosted by the Planetary Society's Web site.

Nordgren, an astronomy and physics professor, is spending one to three weeks in each park, with the help of the National Park Service’s Night Sky Team of rangers and astronomers. Dedicated to preserving dark night skies in the parks, the team documents the effects of light pollution. Who knew?

Nordgren writes that the national parks in the United States are fast becoming one of the few places where the average person can see a truly dark sky. "When I talk to my students and ask if any of them have ever seen the Milky Way, only a small handful are ever able to say 'yes,' and often the occasion was some childhood trip to a national park." He says a dark, starry sky is as much an integral part of a park visit as seeing Old Faithful or the Grand Canyon.

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