Fountain Hills Dark Sky Festival is out of this world

A stellar crowd numbering in the thousands turned out for the International Dark Sky Festival hosted by Fountain Hills Dark Sky Preservation on Saturday, March 28.

Joe Bill, president of the International Dark Sky Discovery Center, teased a grand opening for the Discovery Center with phase two construction to begin soon. Without providing a specific date, Bill said construction would be complete by the end of the calendar year.

The building exterior was completed in July 2025 and the 27.5-inch PlaneWave telescope, the largest telescope in the Phoenix area, was installed at the observatory this past fall. The observatory has been operational, allowing university and research groups access.

Bill also introduced Dr. Cain Jagodzinski, who will take over as CEO for the Discovery Center when he retires from his career in education this summer. “Dr. J” is completing his tenure as superintendent for the Fountain Hills Unified School District, where he taught science and coached basketball early in his career.

“We plan to be super creative in what we do here,” Jagodzinski said. “We want it to be an immersive experience and a hub for studying dark skies. There will be students at the center all the time. Our goal is to be a leader as a dark sky community.”

Fountain Hills was named as the 17th International Dark Sky Community in 2018 and is the only one in a major metropolitan area. Flagstaff was the original dark sky community in Arizona, but since the naming of Fountain Hills several other Arizona communities have earned their dark sky designation or are in the process.

The Dark Sky Festival has developed a reputation for attracting dynamic speakers to draw capacity crowds into the Fountain Hills Community Center ballroom. This year, retired NASA astronaut and U.S. Navy Commander (ret.) Susan Kilrain and entomologist Tony Palmer, a Xerces Society Ambassador, were the keynote speakers for the event.

Kilrain did a special presentation Saturday morning to a group of about two dozen invited students and their parents inside the Discovery Center lobby. She told how she decided at a young age she wanted to fly and that ambition eventually led her to reach beyond the sky to the stars and become an astronaut. She was among the first female shuttle pilots to fly for NASA guiding the Columbia on a mission.

Kilrain told the audience, particularly the kids, they can be whatever they choose to be with hard work and focus. She credited a math teacher for inspiring her to learn and get the grades she needed to accomplish her goal. Kilrain also engaged the kids in her presentation challenging them to imagine a shuttle lift-off by lying on their back with legs in the air and shaking to simulate the energy behind the blastoff.

Kilrain is the author of a children’s book, “The Unlikely Astronaut,” which she signed for those attending the festival.

Palmer, an Ohio native, grew up watching fireflies or lighting bugs but did not become involved in research on the insects until coming to Arizona and discovering the existence of species in southern Arizona. He is an ambassador for the Xerces Society, a group dedicated to research, education and policy advancement in the field of entomology.

There are 2,500 species of fireflies worldwide with 150 populating North America and 19 species in Arizona, mostly in the southern part of the state, upper Verde River and northern Arizona.

Palmer said Arizona is home to three species of synchronous fireflies meaning the males all flash at the same time.

Light pollution is a threat to fireflies as they require true darkness for mating. Also, habitat degradation. Palmer said less maintenance on a home garden is a way to attract fireflies by leaving a more natural habitat.

The festival also featured numerous wildlife and scientific exhibits related to science inside the Community Center and on the Centennial Circle Plaza. A passport program allowed kids to visit the exhibitors and have a chance to win a bicycle provided by McDowell Mountain Cycles.

Please submit comments at yourvalley.net/letters or email them to AzOpinions@iniusa.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines.