Atacama altiplano, 2 a.m.
Dark-sky travel writer
Maya Okonkwo
I'm Nigerian-born and have spent years writing about dark-sky travel. In person, I've stood under three skies: the Atacama altiplano in Chile, NamibRand Nature Reserve in Namibia, and the dunes at Merzouga on the edge of the Sahara. Everything else I cover, from Arctic aurora coasts and Pacific dark-sky reserves to desert observatories at Wadi Rum and AlUla, I document rather than claim to have seen. That means measured Bortle class and SQM readings, cloud-cover climatology, moon-phase calendars, Kp index and space-weather data, operator-confirmed prices, and access rules and drive times pulled from park services, dark-sky reserve authorities, the International Dark-Sky Association, and the lodges and observatories themselves, not aggregator sites. I still lead with the question most guides skip: when, exactly, should you go. I vet lodges and tours for first-timers and say plainly when a trip is likely to get clouded out, whether I've stood there myself or not.
I've seen dark skies firsthand in the Atacama altiplano, Namibia's NamibRand Nature Reserve, and Morocco's Merzouga dunes; every other destination I write about is built from measured Bortle and SQM data, cloud climatology, and primary sources like park services and the International Dark-Sky Association.