Page 6 Secrets of the Southwest 2013
Stargaze in the 'ultimate art gallery'
“The sky is the ultimate art gallery just above us.” So said Ralph Waldo Emerson, a man who lived as the age of elec- tricity dawned. Now, the night sky is so polluted with excessive light that two-thirds of the world’s population can no longer see the Milky Way from their homes. Visitors to Cypress Park, how- ever, can enjoy this "ultimate art gallery" because of the park’s significant lack of light pollution. As the popularity of the annual Summer
Star Party grew, so did the need for a Dark Sky Preserve designation for the park. The discovery of a comet at the 2001 Star Party bolstered the push for Dark Sky Preserve designation. On Sept. 28, 2004, Cypress Park and Fort Walsh National Historic Site were declared Saskatchewan and Alberta’s first Dark Sky Preserve; the first of its kind located in a provincial park and at the time, Canada’s largest. The designation means that the park’s natural darkness is as import- ant a commodity as rare orchids. Park program staff have developed astron- omy-themed education programs for school and summer visitors. Moonlit hikes, amphi- theatre plays, campfire programs and more are designed to educate the visitor about the
Dark Sky Preserve status, light pollution and the night sky. The Rangers of the Night program began in 2006 with one 10-inch Dobsonian telescope and 20x80 binoculars set up at Lookout Point. That first year, park interpreters showed the night sky to long lines of enthusiastic visitors. Recognizing the popularity of the program, Friends of Cypress Hills Park Inc. donated a larger telescope to the program in 2007 and under- took plans to fundraise and build an observa- tory and classroom, which opened in 2011. With the 14-inch Celestron telescope in the observatory connected to the screen in the yurt classroom, up to 70 visitors at a time can view galaxies, planets, nebulae and more. Mark Walker, the first member of the observatory’s astronomer-in-residence pro- gram, spent the summer of 2012 streamlin- ing the system and teaching staff how to use the equipment. Between Walker’s programs and the park staff’s programs, the observa- tory was open five days a week and over 5,000 people attended. With a solid footing to start 2013, the park is intent on providing even more peo- ple with the gift of viewing “the ultimate art gallery” sparkling over the Cypress Hills Dark Sky Preserve.
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