Dark sky expands
Third annual stargazing festival set to include robots
and astronomy of Harry Potter
Paul Bickford
Northern News Services
Published Monday, July 28, 2014
THEBACHA/FORT SMITH
This year's third-annual Thebacha & Wood Buffalo Dark Sky Festival is promising to be the biggest and best.
At the first Dark Sky Festival – then called a Star Party – in 2012, Bruce Buckley looks over one of his telescopes at Pine Lake, about 60 km south of Fort Smith in Wood Buffalo National Park. - photo courtesy of Larry Nixon/ Thebacha & Wood Buffalo Astronomical Society |
"It's definitely a conscious effort. We want to grow this event every year," said Tim Gauthier, a communications officer with Wood Buffalo National Park.
The festival is being presented from Aug. 21 to 24 by the park and the Thebacha & Wood Buffalo Astronomical Society.
It will feature, among other things, stargazing, a portable planetarium, hands-on science experiments, activities especially for children, workshops on telescopes and dark-sky photography, a special guest speaker, and more.
Wood Buffalo National Park is the world's largest dark-sky preserve - an area where artificial light is kept to a minimum.
Gauthier explained the festival - in Fort Smith and at Pine Lake, about 60 km to the south in the Alberta section of the national park - is designed to be a regional event.
"We want to let people know this event is happening and that we welcome people from Yellowknife, Hay River, throughout the NWT and Northern Alberta, as well," he said, noting that last year three participants came from Yellowknife and a couple from Peace River, Alta.
Gauthier said he would like to see an increase in the overall number of participants.
"The first year we had 35 people," he noted. "Last year we had 90. We'd like to see that sort of growth again this year."
Gauthier pointed out the festival, which he noted is already the North's biggest astronomy-themed event, is being marketed a bit more aggressively and organizers are getting the word out sooner.
Mike Couvrette, chairperson of the Thebacha & Wood Buffalo Astronomical Society, said he would like to see incremental growth for the festival.
Couvrette estimated it will attract between 80 and 100 people this year.
"If we get more, it would be great," he said. "One thing I've noticed this year is I have been actually getting several out-of-town inquiries."
Couvrette wants to keep the festival manageable.
"It would be nice if hundreds would show up, but at this point in time it is a limited interest group," he explained. "It's sort of like birding. A lot of people don't want to admit that they're stargazers."
The keynote speaker at the festival will be Peter McMahon, who is known as the wilderness astronomer.
McMahon, who lives in Ontario, is an award-winning science journalist who has worked for CTV News, the Discovery Channel, and has written for many publications including SkyNews magazine.
On Aug. 21, McMahon will present a Celebrity Tour of the Night Sky at Wood Buffalo National Park headquarters in Fort Smith. The celebrity tour looks at whether popular cultural references in astronomy have a real-life place in the night's sky. On Aug. 23, he will talk about The Astronomy of Harry Potter at the Pine Lake festival site. This segment explores the cosmic connection between characters and scenes in the series of novels.
New activities this year will include workshops on how to use telescopes and take dark-sky photographs.
"Of course, this year we have our planetarium - the Great Northern Discovery Dome," said Gauthier, referring to a mobile planetarium obtained by Wood Buffalo National Park earlier this year.
During the festival, planetarium shows will be presented at park headquarters and at the Fort Smith Rec Centre.
Another new feature this year will be robot-building and a number of other projects for older children in co-operation with the Aurora Research Institute of Aurora College. The robots will be built in Fort Smith and demonstrated at Pine Lake.
The older children will also be able to build and launch rockets at Pine Lake.
The Circus of Science for younger children will return this year. The event will offer fun activities, such as building bottle rockets and telescopes.
"We've got a bunch of volunteers who are going to do different science experiments and demonstrations," said Couvrette, adding the Circus of Science will be targeted toward children aged five to 12 years of age.
