We are losing the night. While this may seem like a strange statement, it reflects a growing reality that could severely impact many living things on Earth. The global spread of electric lights, combined with the round-the-clock nature of life and the launch of thousands of satellites, has rapidly “lightened” our world. Light pollution has increased so dramatically that, within a single generation, approximately half of the stars in the night sky visible to the unaided eye will disappear from view. This loss of darkness is having significant impacts on nearly all living things, including human health, animal behavior, and cultural and spiritual practices. Yet, to date, existing domestic and international laws have failed to address this urgent issue. In this paper, we propose new strategies that use domestic legal mechanisms, supported by international law, to protect the darkness. By combining the fields of law and astronomy, we outline three legal approaches to protect the night sky, each based on the concept of rights: individual rights, community rights, and rights of Nature. These approaches differ from those commonly used, particularly in the United States, but we argue they may provide better opportunities for communities to address the increasingly harmful amount of light pollution brightening the darkness.