DarkSky International

DarkSky International

Formation	1988; 36 years ago (1988)
Founded at	United States
Type	Nonprofit
Tax ID no.	74-2493011
Legal status	501(c)(3)
Headquarters	Tucson, Arizona, United States
Board President	Tom Reinert
CEO & Executive Director	Ruskin Hartley
Board of directors	Tom Reinert; Nalayini Brito-Davies; Brad Schlesselman; Ken Walczak; Diane Knutson; Connie Walker; Kevin Gaston Ph.D.; Sibylle Schroer; SergioMontúfar Codoñer; Mike Simmons; Paulina Villalobos; Samyukta Manikumar; Fernando Avila Castro; Doug Barker
Website	https://www.darksky.org/

DarkSky International, formerly the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA)^[1] is a United States-based non-profit organization incorporated in 1988 by founders David Crawford, a professional astronomer, and Tim Hunter, a physician and amateur astronomer. The mission of DarkSky is "to preserve and protect the night time environment and our heritage of dark skies through quality outdoor lighting."^[2]

Light pollution is the result of outdoor lighting that is not properly shielded, allowing light shine into the eyes and night sky. Direct light that shines into the eyes is called glare, and light directed into the night sky above the horizon causes skyglow. Lighting can also cause light trespass when it enters areas where unwanted (e.g. a neighbor's yard and windows). DarkSky was the first organization in the dark-sky movement, and is currently the largest.