It's aimed at the Big Dipper, but Custis is seeing something nearly 12 million light years away.

"It's just a stripe," the 7-year-old from Alabama exclaims.

"It is, but that stripe is made up of 300 billion stars," says the telescope's operator, Bob Moore, president of the Salt Lake Astronomical Society. "It's a galaxy that is on its side. So it's like looking at a Frisbee coming right at you."

"Woah," Custis says, and puts his eye back to the telescope.

Hundreds of people from all over the world gazed through telescopes set up in a parking lot for the 8th Annual Bryce Canyon Astronomy Festival, in a park that boasts some of the darkest skies in the nation.

Nearly 7,500 stars are viewable each night here, while the darkest rural town skies usually showcase only about 2,500.

You can easily pick out who hasn't seen such a sight. They're the ones who mumble to each other that the sky would be gorgeous except for that annoying band of clouds.

That band is in fact the Milky Way.

"The Milky Way is becoming the stuff of legends," said Morris Jones, an amateur astronomer from Monrovia, Calif., adding that anyone born today has less than a 50 percent chance of seeing it.

While he sets up telescopes back home as part of the Old Town Sidewalk Astronomers to show Californians easily seen objects such as the moon, Saturn and Jupiter, he likes to point out the more obscure galaxies that can be seen only in pristine darkness.

Watching someone see celestial objects like that is what brings volunteer David Mettome back each year.

"I just love interacting with people," he said. "We get used to seeing this, but it's great to hear them say, 'Woah, how neat is this?' "

Getting people to appreciate the night sky is the first, and most important, step in getting them to help protect it.

Kevin Poe, the head "Dark Ranger" at the park, gave an hour-long presentation on the importance of preserving the night sky by shining lights down instead of up into space. Not only does it save money and help wildlife, he said, but it allows people to better observe and thus understand the universe.

That message resonated with Layton resident Cheryl Smith, who came to Bryce Canyon to camp with her husband, Ron, and granddaughter Ashleigh.

"I didn't realize the problems light would cause with plants, animals and humans," she said. "It makes me want to go home and change my lights."

She didn't know there was an astronomy festival happening, and had just planned a week of camping. She hadn't stargazed at all.

"We'll for sure go out and look tonight," she said.

The draw of such skies brought Johannes Weiss back from his home just outside Stuttgart, Germany, to Bryce Canyon 10 years after his first visit, this time with his wife, Renate.

"We happened to be here during the festival. We're glad to be that lucky," Johannes Weiss said. "This is absolutely great. It's awesome to see so many stars."

smcfarland@sltrib.com