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Astronomical society forming
for Fort Smith, national park
Designation of Wood Buffalo
as dark sky preserve to followPaul Bickford Northern News Services Published Saturday, July 16, 2011
The Thebacha and Wood Buffalo Astronomical Society will hold an organizational meeting on July 21. It is the first group of its kind in Fort Smith. And in a related move, Wood Buffalo National Park is seeking to have itself designated a dark sky preserve by the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. A dark sky preserve is an area which actively works to eliminate light pollution to create premium sky gazing conditions. The main organizer of the new astronomical society in Fort Smith is Mike Couvrette, who describes himself as an amateur astronomer who has owned a telescope since he was 10 years old. "I've always had it in the back of my mind it would be nice to have a little association where every couple of months we could get together and talk about what's in the night skies," he said. Plus, he would like to see an observation deck set up reasonably close to Fort Smith for people to set up their telescopes. "In my view, it's not strictly limited to stargazing," Couvrette said. "There's also aurora watching." The new society had its genesis about a year and a half ago when Couvrette read an article about a Nova Scotia park designated a dark sky preserve. Afterwards, he mentioned to Wood Buffalo officials that the park's day-use area at Salt River, about 24 km south of Fort Smith, fit the criteria for a dark sky preserve because it had no light pollution, an open sky and public accessibility. The park started to research the requirements for establishing a dark sky preserve. "One of the things that came out of this was that, to be eligible as a dark sky preserve, Parks Canada needed to work with a local organization that did outreach programming," Couvrette said. That led to the creation of the astronomical society for Fort Smith and the park. There are currently 13 dark sky preserves in Canada, but one in Wood Buffalo would be unique. "It would be all of Wood Buffalo National Park, which would make us the world's largest dark sky preserve," said Tim Gauthier, a communications officer with the park. "Currently, the world's largest is Jasper National Park." It would also be the first in the NWT. For a dark sky preserve to be established, regulations have to be put in place to minimize artificial light and to meet the criteria of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. "It's not just the darkness that makes a dark sky preserve," Gauthier explained. "You also need to have people using the preserve. You need programming in place." Currently, the park is taking light meter readings to establish a baseline for light pollution. It is also identifying possible threats from light pollution. The park will prepare a proposal for the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada after the information is gathered. "I suspect we should be fully designated by next spring," said Gauthier. Wood Buffalo is an astronomer's dream, he said. "In the wintertime, if you look up, the Milky Way is a vast highway across the sky. It's so easy to see in the deep blackness of the park." The July 21 organizational meeting for the Thebacha and Wood Buffalo Astronomical Society will begin at 7 p.m. at Northern Life Museum. A board of directors will be elected at the meeting. Couvrette anticipates a reasonable turnout at the meeting, noting he had no trouble getting the 10 signatures necessary to register the new society.
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