Sometimes ago, I was there, in Jasper national park. The scenic view facing emerald-hued Moraine Lake was serenade with splendor and breathtaking beauty Actually, it was in the early spring. I can't help but sensing the area surrounding the lake was itself melancholic, lonely and cold. But it was then...
CALGARY, Canada - Jasper National Park, a 11,228 square-kilometer refuge, four hours west of Edmonton, in the Canadian Rockies, is 10 times the size of the next-largest designated area, Grasslands National Park in Saskatchewan. It's so big, it could encompass all the other dark sky preserves in the world.Dark sky preserves are designated wilderness areas where strict lighting ordinances help maintain the contrast between faint stars and galaxies and the black backdrop of space.
"Skies like this still give me goosebumps," Parks staffer Gloria Keyes-Brady said.- This past summer, she was interviewed in Jasper under Alberta's darkest skies for a feature on the designation that appears in the April issue of Canadian Geographic. "It feels as if the stars are single-handedly lighting up the Earth here."
- The magazine feature on newsstands March 24 also looks at the emerging eco-tourism trend of wilderness astronomy, a pursuit more likely to be enjoyed by families and avid outdoors people than dedicated astronomy club members.
These "polar fleece astronomers" are ditching telescopes and using gear such as iPads and GPS-based star-finders to browse their way around the sky. - While Jasper is nestled within soaring mountain ranges, it also has the largest clearings in the Rockies, making for dramatic open spaces for stargazing.
To qualify for the designation, Parks staff took readings at night from different campsites with specialized light meters to measure the darkness of the skies.They discovered that the southern part of Jasper National Park not only boasted the darkest skies in Alberta, but some of the darkest anywhere near a major tourism centre.
HD Jasper National Park, Alberta. by VRIDETV
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