THEBACHA/FORT SMITH
Mike Couvrette enjoys looking skyward. That's why Couvrette is chairperson of the Thebacha & Wood Buffalo Astronomical Society in Fort Smith.

Mike Couvrette, chairperson of the Thebacha & Wood Buffalo Astronomical Society in Fort Smith, sets up a telescope on the deck of his home. - Paul Bickford/NNSL photo

"Basically, I look at the sky every night, not with the telescope but just looking at the stars," he said.

Couvrette explained you never know what you might see - a satellite passing overhead or the Aurora Borealis.

"It seems the sky here is more lively," he said, noting the Northern sky also has virtually no light pollution.

Sometimes Couvrette sets up a telescope on the deck at his house to peer at objects in space.

"The one that always dazzles me is to be able to see Saturn and its rings," he said, adding he also enjoys looking at a crescent moon to see its valleys and shadows.

Couvrette is considering building a small observatory in his yard this summer so he can leave his telescope outside under cover.

"Normally, to set up the telescope, you have to plan ahead because, if you move it from inside to outside in the wintertime, you probably have to give it a half hour to 45 minutes for the air inside the telescope to cool off," he said, explaining the temperature difference distorts images.

The new structure would be what's called a roll-roof observatory, which basically uses a garage door roller system that serves as a retractable roof.

Couvrette, 54, has been interested in astronomy since he was a child growing up in the Eastern Arctic, where his family relocated in 1970 from Ontario.

"I had my first telescope when I was 11," he recalled. "I bought it myself with doing extra chores and things like that.

" It was one of those little Simpsons-Sears specials. It was a bit wobbly."

With that basic telescope, he was able to observe the moon and "almost" see the planets.

That was his only telescope until he was about 20, and he didn't have another until he bought a much better one in 1993 in Fort Smith, where he has lived since 1986.

These days, he stargazes through a six-inch refracting telescope with which he can see many astronomical features, including the crab nebula, Mars and the Andromeda

galaxy.

Couvrette said his fascination with space can largely be explained by what was happening when he was in elementary school - the original Star Trek series was on television, the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey was in the theatres and the Apollo missions were moving toward landing humans on the moon.

"We were going to land on the moon and the next thing we were going to be off to the stars," he said. "When they landed on the moon, I was living in Moose Factory. We didn't have a television, but it was live on the radio there. I remember listening to it live on the radio."

As a child, he expected that by now humans would be probably living on Mars and heading off deeper into space, and he admits to being somewhat disappointed that has not happened.

Couvrette - who has worked for the GNWT for 34 years and is currently the regional programs co-ordinator for the South Slave with the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment - has been chairperson of the Thebacha & Wood Buffalo Astronomical Society since it formed in 2011.

"We've got a small group of core people that are quite avid astronomers," he said, noting the society has about 30 members in total.

Observing the sky as a group is interesting and enjoyable, he said. "It's sort of a sharing and learning experience at the same time."

The society organizes various events, including its annual Dark Sky Festival in August at Pine Lake, about 60 km south of Fort Smith in Wood Buffalo National Park. Plus, it is planning events for Astronomy Week from May 4 to 10.

Couvrette noted the society is hoping to build an observatory at a proposed urban star park in Fort Smith.

The urban star park would include an area where people can set up their own telescopes.

Couvrette said different people have different reasons for stargazing.

"For myself, it's more being able to look at something and just let your imagination go," he explained. He wonders what it would be like to be on another planet or to meet people from another world.

He added humanity sometimes thinks it's a pretty big cog in the wheel of the universe, but astronomy helps put everything into perspective.

"It sort of really puts us back in our place."

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