The Milky Way should be visible from earth, but a new study says that only about one third of Americans can see our own galaxy from their own backyards.

Researchers believe this combined method will be particularly helpful in approaching the problem of light pollution as it relates to national parks.

A study published September 4 in Park Science revealed that nearly 90 percent of visitors to Acadia National Park in Maine want to be able to view dark night skies that are unpolluted by artificial light.

Each visitor was given a photo of the night sky from inside of Acadia with varying levels of light pollution and asked to state which they would find acceptable.

Most light threatening the National Parks comes from development, the study says.

The larger amounts of light pollution were increasingly unacceptable to visitors, the study showed, with a threshold for an experience they no longer deemed enjoyable reached between the third and the fifth photo in the sequence of eight. Light from cities or towns can reach parks from as far away as 250 miles (400 kilometres). “It’s one of those things that we start to notice only when it begins to disappear”.

“Night skies [are] a good example of where progress is being made and a lot more progress can be made”, Manning goes on to say. Darkness is a renewable source and there are several things that could be done to restore it in parks, which is in fact the main objective of the study.

Visitors of the park are the only ones who have the privilege to fully see night’s darkness, since, according to Manning, 99% of the skies are polluted.

Outside the park, however, becomes even trickier, but it is possible with the help of the surrounding communities that could reduce their use of artificial lights as well, in order to preserve the spectacular view of the nighttime sky, unhindered by manmade objects.

Inside the park, the reduction of light pollution might be easier, by both removing the problem of eliminating what equipment is not definitely needed. “That’s more challenging, but possible”.

Most light pollution derives from older style light sources that disperse illumination horizontally rather than directionally toward the target area.

Acadia has already seen success in working with the neighboring city of Bar Harbor to implement a progressive lighting ordinance, and Chaco Culture National Historical Park in New Mexico is partnered with stakeholder groups to encourage the state legislature to pass the New Mexico Night Sky Protection Act.