In addition to the fabulous features of the Bruce Peninsula and surrounding area chronicled in Sky News Magazine, I’d like to share with you an aspect of the region’s dark-sky success story we didn’t have space to get into in the print edition.

A magic bullet for dark sky success

More and more across Canada and North America, astronomy club members are being joined coast to coast by families, environmentalists, business leaders, marketing experts and more.
For years, local astronomy club members and observatory owners have pushed for the municipality, ferry operator, and Parks Canada to make a good thing even better and go beyond a responsible lighting plan to encourage landowners and business operators to go dark.

In the case of the Bruce, on the shores of Ontario’s Georgian Bay and Lake Huron, Bruce Peninsula Biosphere Association Chair Elizabeth Thorn has exemplified the benefits of such collaborations, bringing decades of business savvy to the table in the campaign to turn out the lights in one of the continent’s most exciting “astronomy parks.”

Getting results

When I visited the area and met some of the personalities responsible for astronomy outreach in the Bruce Peninsula this past summer, the overwhealming consensus was that critical mass after 11 years of work by amateur astronomers such as Doug and Paula Cunningham and Rod Steinacher was reached when such stalwart stargazing crusaders teamed up with the business, marketing and communications talents needed to effectively discuss change with local stakeholders.

Among other wins, this collaboration between longtime astronomy buffs and interested newcomers with skills to share has resulted in grants for light pollution audits and lighting replacement programs, as well as funds to develop a boardwalk with telescopes that will  be mounted there for the enjoyment of groups and the general public.

A big win for concerned citizens (and for great views of the night sky)

After the initial dark sky community – and later dark sky preserve – designation for the Bruce, Elizabeth, along with Rod and others, has also been a key communicator in convincing the Owen Sound Transportation authority (which operates the ferry between the peninsula and Manitoulin Island and associated docks) to dim and replace much of their polluting lighting at the ferry docks in Tobermory.

The secret ingredient…

“Indeed, the project really took off when the  Bruce Peninsula Environment Group embraced the concept and really blossomed when Elizabeth Thorn brought her amazing organizational skills to the project,” Doug Cunningham recently told me. “I can’t say enough good things about Elizabeth’s and Rod Steinacher’s substantial contributions  to the successful achievements of our Dark Sky Committee.”

As local observatory owners such as Doug and Paula and telescope-weilding landowners such as Rod  suggest, this truly sets the stage for Bruce Peninsula becoming known as one of North America’s true crown jewels – not just for its world-renowned diving, shipwrecks, lush biosphere, and gorgeous sunsets – but also for the down-to-the-horizon starscapes that families and groups of all ages can enjoy above it all.

Come this summer, and those that follow, I can’t wait to see an updated set of sky quality metre readings and light pollution maps taken after this change – scheduled for before the 2012 tourist season – takes effect, as well as some changes Parks Canada and local businesses are implementing on the Peninsula to make the skies above the Bruce truly world-class.

**MORE: Links to tourism and accommodation for a stargazing trip to Bruce Peninsula**

Recently, I (centre, in the image above) took several families out to some Eastern Ontario conservation areas (The Ganaraska Forest in Northumberland County, in this case) to have them put this gear – and the the views it yielded – to the test.

(…more in the full post at telescopes.ca…)

On the flip-side, if you know what you want to see (and it’s in the sky), you can select it from a menu (the menu arrows are built like a TV remote – so for e.g…

(…more in the full post at telescopes.ca…)

While out there, I figured I’d take our 3-year-old miniature schnauzer, Winston, out for his final business transaction of the night. At the same time, our 3-month old mini, Frankie Jenkins (Above, also known as “the trainee”) decided to hop out into the yard for a tinkle…(…more in the full post at telescopes.ca…)

Even smaller models (smaller than the typical seven-power, 50 mm aperture 7×50 binoculars) like 10×30s and 12×36s made jarring, confusing messes of stars stand still and dazzle as if the binoculars were mounted on a tripod. I could even give one arm a rest and hold these…

(…more in the full post at telescopes.ca…)

But when I started picking favourites and knowing which of these instruments was the right tool for a particular job, I knew I’d hit on something more than just my next great observing fix…

(more in the full entry at escience.ca …)

But after years of trying to go stargazing from Canada’s largest, least crowded, least stinky hot spring, the clouds parted for more than a few hours and we FINALLY had success, as you can see from this view of the skies over said springs (above, with the springs themselves, inset.)

If you’re interested in stargazing from the hot springs, be advised that you get more steam than sky, through the experience of seeing ANYTHING from these luxuriously warm waters in the dead of winter is pretty cool.

For a more serious view of the stars over Kootenay National Park, there are lots of observing sites but for the best view from some place warm in the snowy season, book the Columbia Suite or Eagle’s Nest at Chalet Europe, perched atop one of the highest points in the town of Radium, the place has the best views of the Columbia Valley below and skies above, clear of what light pollution there is from the town and the otherwise-awesome hot springs.

Happy New Year!

Though the observatory officially opened at the end of August, I thought it would be nifty to share some of the construction photos here.

In these images, Friends of Cypress Hills Park head honcho – and mastermind of this project – Gerald Gartner helps work on and supervise the installation of the door on the dome of the observatory on their magnitude-7.5 observing campground.

You can read more about this Canadian astronomy Mecca in the latest issue of Sky News (you have to buy or subscribe to the magazine and can do so at www.skynews.ca Print and digital subscriptions are both $26 Cdn – which, by the way, makes a great Christmas gift or stocking stuffer for the outdoorsperson and/or sky-fancier on your list ; )

CORRECTION: The Sky News image of the finished observatory at night is credited to me – Peter McMahon. The credit should read: “Saskatchewan Ministry of Tourism, Parks, Culture and Sport/Paul Austring Photography”

Resources (Web links from Sky News magazine column)

Cypress Hills maps

Friends of Cypress Hills Park

Cypress Park Resort Inn

The astronomy event was attended by a total of approximately 80-100 people as part of a slate of evening activities at the symposium, which regularly attracts more than 1,000 delegates from conservation authorities from around Ontario and Canada.

After giving a talk on the water beyond Earth, we went outside and used Canon 15×50 Image Stabilizer binoculars, a Sky Watcher Heritage P130 reflecting telescope, an Sky Watcher Black Diamond 80 mm refracting scope, and a 318 mm (12.5 inch) Sky Watcher reflector.

My presentation was called “WATER: Beyond the Earth, Among the Stars” which looked at sources of H2O on Mars, our Moon, comets and the moons of Saturn and Jupiter.

Afterwards, what was predicted to be a very cloudy night cleared up, we got a chance to look at LIVE views of Jupiter’s water-bearing moons Callisto and Europa, which I’d talked about earlier.

The Latornell conservation symposium is held each year at Alliston, Ontario’s Nottawasaga Inn, voted Ontario’s #1 family golf resort and is the largest event of its kind for conservation authorities.

I was feeling a bit melancholy at the end of this month – and not due to the end of the warm season here in Ontario, or the ominous approach of Halloween (which I actually really love.) I was mourning the end of what felt like one of those once-in-a-lifetime moments – Like a kid at the end of a great season of summer camp, not knowing if they’ll ever be back:

(Above: The river widens at midnight below Jasper’s Athebasca Falls (click for full-res to see the extent of stars. Image: Peter McMahon)

For most of October, I spent the month living in the Canadian Rockies as astronomy-writer-in-residencefor Jasper National Park – I’d proposed and helped create the world’s largest “astronomy park” or dark sky preserve there the year before.

Yuichi and I presenting to a crowd of about 100 at Jasper Park Lodge's Mountain Galleries on Oct 21

Sharing astronomy in the mountains

While in Jasper this month, I worked on astronomy-related writing projects (my next column for Sky News magazine and a few proposals for new kids books I’d been asked to do by my publisher.) I also gave what averaged out to an astronomy talk nearly every business day (from “wilderness astronomy” destinations across Canada, to space tourism for kids 9-99, to something I came up with for the restaurants in the park called “2011: A Space Entrée”)

I also did more than a dozen day and night-time stargazing sessions with several hundred visitors to the park and Jasper residents. In almost every case, the skies were clear enough to train telescopes and  image-stabilized binoculars from Telescopes.ca as well as GPS starfinders and iPad apps on Jupiter (and 3-4 of its 63-known moons), the Perseus Double star cluster, the Orion Nebula, the Andromeda Galaxy and more. In the image here, we checked out fine details on the Moon with two large 10″ Dobsonian telescopes.

Moonlight over the falls from Bridge 1 at Maligne Canyon in Jasper National Park (the area at upper-left is directly overhead, while the area at lower right is two degrees from the photographer’s shoes. Image: Peter McMahon)

The experience also afforded me the chance to photograph Jasper at night with a new 6.5mm fisheye lens that let me to capture moonrise over waterfalls and galaxies rising over canyons.

RASC Edmonton astronomer looks through Peter's Skywatcher Heritage 130 (courtesy Telescopes.ca) on the VIA Rail trip to the Jasper Dark Sky Festival on Oct 21

I even got to pull off some stunts, like showing folks telescope views of the Sun and the Moon on a moving train that was taking them to Jasper’s inaugural dark sky festival.

Just the beginning…

When I think of all the first happening in this park and the crowds already gathering for a look through the telescope eyepieces, I start to dream of the historical plaques that might mention Jasper’s long history as a night sky destination…and some of the people I know in the coming decades and beyond:

Jasper Dark Sky Festival attendees view the International Space Station passing overhead on Oct 22, some using Canon IS Image Stabilizer binoculars from Telescopes.ca

People like Gloria Keyes-Brady, Parks Canada’s head of interpreters in Jasper, who first got excited about a dark sky designation as I started to describe what it entailed back in March 2010.

Or Jasper marketing manager Rogier Gruys, who spent every possible opportunity on every clear night for half a year photographing and taking light meter readings for putting together Jasper’s DSP application.

Or park head interpreter Brian Catto, who carried out the bulk of the actual astronomy interpretive programming in the park during and after its record-breaking designation.

Or Tourism Jasper CEO Maggie Davison, who constantly asked “How can we make this happen” on everything from bringing me in as astro-writer-in-residence to creating magical experiences for dark sky festival attendees.

Jasper's Athabasca Falls in the moonlight in early October, under (from left-to-right) The Big Dipper, Draco, Gemini, and Orion

Or Tourism Jasper CEO Maggie Davison, who constantly asked “How can we make this happen” on everything from bringing me in as astro-writer-in-residence to creating magical experiences for dark sky festival attendees.

Special thanks HAS to go out to two of my sponsors in-particular:

Telescopes.ca for having the faith in me as a brand to loan and (in many cases) give me telescopes and binoculars to show people the sky in all these wonderful locations. And to the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge, for believing in me and this project enough to supply in-kind for part of my food AND to put me up in a suite to live, work, and otherwise be based out of, for the entire month of October.

October stars above the pool at the main lodge on Lac Beauvert at the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge

Bye-bye mountain : (

The unhappy task of watching the mountains recede in my rear-view mirror came after what seemed like another lifetime.

On the way out of the park, I looked back with glassy eyes at the entrance to the world’s largest dark sky preserve – not because I thought I’d never be back, but because I knew I’d always be back.