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Wonders of the Northern sky Clouds part for 90 stargazers during second Thebacha and Wood Buffalo National Park Dark Sky Festival
Chris Puglia
Northern News Services
Published Friday, September 5, 2013
WOOD BUFFALO NATIONAL PARK
Cloud cover and intermittent rain threatened to hide the beauty of the heavens from approximately 90 stargazers who flocked to Pine Lake for the Thebacha and Wood Buffalo National Park Dark Sky Festival on Aug. 24.
Children express their excitement at the Wood Buffalo Rocket Centre where Parks Canada's Tim Gauthier worked with youth to create bottle rockets during the the second-annual Thebacha and Wood Buffalo Dark Sky Festival on Aug. 24. - photo courtesy of Tim Gauthier
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For the space junkies who attended the second-annual event, it appeared all astronomical wonders would remain a mystery veiled in grey cloud - until just before midnight that is.
"That's when the miracle happened," said Tim Gauthier, communications officer and Parks Canada lead for the festival, of the parting of the clouds at 11:30 p.m.
A three-quarter moon, wrapped in wisps of luminescent cloud and backdropped by a dazzling blanket of stars gleamed. The stars, interspersed with the odd streak of a burning meteoroid and the dancing of the aurora borealis, created an awe-inspiring finale to the weekend. Most of the skywatchers were awake when the show began. The few who had retired early were roused as to not miss the stellar event.
Gauthier said the mood at that point in the evening was one of elation.
"It came upon us suddenly and we looked up and said, 'That's the big dipper. When did that happen?'," he said.
Although the weather earlier in the evening was not conducive to stargazing, that didn't dampen the spirit of the festival which was planned with a variety of activities to compensate if mother
nature didn't co-operate.
"With a dark sky festival or any other outdoor event that has to do with the dark sky, you over plan," Gauthier said.
While people were waiting and hoping for the stars to emerge they had the opportunity to make cosmic T-shirts, learn about nocturnal ecology and the crowd favourite - making bottle rockets. Children were also given glow sticks for a Dancing with Light event where they became dancing patterns of light in the darkness and were photographed.
"We were able to put together a really family-friendly affair," said Gauthier.
That atmosphere, combined with Wood Buffalo National Parks' recent designation as the largest Dark Sky Preserve on the planet, helped to more than double the attendance at this year's festival. There were 80 overnighters, a few who attended but decided not to camp, and nearly 100 people who visited the mobile Telus World Science Planetarium on Aug. 23. Gauthier was ecstatic about the reception this year.
Diane Seals, who attended the festival with her four children, who range in age from six to 13, said her first time to the event was wonderful.
"We were kept well entertained," she said, although they missed the sky event because they had all settled into bed before the clouds cleared.
One of the highlights for Seals and her family was the planetarium, which provided a chance for the whole family to explore the sky.
Seals, who works at the museum in Fort Smith, said to improve on the experience, festival organizers should tailor the planetarium show to the Northern sky.
"Add in the historical aspects of the stars and if they meant anything to the aboriginal people here and their culture," she said.
For Gauthier, the visibility of the sky will be one more thing to draw people to Fort Smith which is a goal for future festivals.
Presently, the Thebacha and Wood Buffalo Astronomical Society has 40 members - two from Hay River, the rest from Fort Smith. Gauthier said the society is working on establishing a chapter in Fort McMurray and wants to draw people from other NWT communities to the festival next year.
Plans are already in the works to add attractions to the third installment of the festival - including a special guest speaker, who Gauthier declined to identify because of the early stages of planning.
Overall, Gauthier is excited about the future of the event and the chance to show off his community and the sky above to more and more people from near and far.
"Everyone should get a chance to experience the wonders of the Northern sky," he said. "On a moonless night, you can look up and the Milky Way is a spectacular, jaw-dropping river of grey. It's awesome and humbling."
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