Stargazing in Central Texas at the Cottages at Boldheart Farms

There’s some truly amazing stargazing in Central Texas and you can find it right here at Boldheart Farms!

I have a friend who lives in Houston who likes to tell pretty bad jokes. One of them goes like this:

Him: Why do they call Texas the Lone Star State?

Me (rolling my eyes): I don’t know, please tell me.

Him: Because at night in Houston, you can only see one star!

Okay, the joke’s not funny, but it does get at a sad truth about city life these days. There’s just so much light pollution that all the gorgeous wonders of the night sky are all but invisible to our brothers and sisters who live in Houston, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, or any other medium to large city.

There are a lot of websites these days talking about the harm that light pollution and “junk light” can do to us. Apparently, there’s research to suggest that all kinds of health problems – from headaches to insomnia to more serious problems – are caused or at least exacerbated by light pollution. One such site you can check out if you’d like is darksky.org.

But even if light pollution wasn’t in fact bad for us, don’t you miss being able to see the lovely, twinkling stars and the bright wash of the Milky Way across the night sky? I know I would. In fact, I lived in a big city for some years and missed so many things I get to experience out here in the country. I love both digging in the dirt and staring up at the cosmos. There’s just something special about feeling a connection to this big ol’ universe that you can only get when you can see thousands upon thousands of stars. What’s out there? Heck if I know, but it’s fun to think about and talk about.

Here’s another web page for you to check out, lightpollutionmap.info. If you click on this link it should take you right to a map of our neighborhood in Central Texas. The town we’re closest to, McMahan, is so small it doesn’t even show up on this map. So here’s what you do: find Austin, then look south to San Marcos. Then look towards the east. You’ll first see Lockhart. We’re pretty close to Lockhart but a bit farther still to the east, right about where the yellowish color on the map turns green, then blue. On this map, blue means there’s hardly any light pollution. And you know what that means… Stars. Lots and lots of stars.

When we have guests I like to check in on them every now and then and make sure everything’s OK. It’s a pretty common sight to find our guests lying flat on their backs after dark just gazing up at our beautiful night sky. They always seem so mesmerized that I don’t want to bother ’em. I figure if they’re enthralled by the night sky, they’re probably doing alright.

Are you missing the gorgeous night sky? Want to unwind a bit and maybe talk about what’s out there with your better half? Well come on and book yourself a couple nights with us! Whether you stay at the Pond Cottage or the Garden Cottage, you won’t forget the stars at night – here at Boldheart Farms they really are big and bright! Come and see us for some of the best stargazing in Central Texas!

(The picture you see on this page, by the way, was taken by one of our guests late last summer.)