By Mary Ellen Geist, Michigan Public Radio Network
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkar/local-wkar-967820.mp3
EMMET CO, MICHIGAN –
This summer, you'll be able to take your family to a very different kind of park in Northern Michigan. It's called a Dark Sky Park, and it's in the Headlands in Emmet County.
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The park is on the ground. But it's all about the sky.
Mary Stewart Adams, a star lore expert from Harbor Springs, is one of several people who have been working for almost four years to create an official International Dark Sky Park in Emmet County.
She says families will be able to use the park to watch meteor showers, northern lights and lunar eclipses.
"It means they will be able to learn about how to identify the constellations in the night sky," she explains. "They will get an opportunity to see things. Not just children in northern Michigan, but throughout the state and the country. People can come here and see stars that they can't see in more urban and populated environments."
There are only five other International Dark Parks in the U.S. There are nine in the entire world.
A celebration will take place at the Headlands on June 21.