Star Light, Star Bright.....

     The word Kouchibouguac is a mouthful but the local residents say it with little effort. The Kouchibouguac National Park has been designated as a dark-sky preserve by the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. It is one of thirteen dark-sky preserves in Canada.

     Parks Canada is committed to protect and preserve the night sky viewing experience by applying strict lighting guidelines to reduce light pollution. The guidelines are tailored to protect ecosystems, reduce energy consumption and maintain dark skies.

"Our home away from home"

     The Kouchibouguac Park is large and beautiful. It has many spaces for RVs to park and enjoy the park and its programmes. We arrived on a Thursday and explored the park. There were not many other campers there but by Friday night, the first night of the Fall Star Fest in late September, the park was full. Many amateur astronomers brought their telescopes and pointed them to the stars.

The Fall leaves are changing.

The sun is shining as we explore the park.

     As the Kouchibouguac Park guide states, "On a clear night, Kouchibouguac's dream dome reveals a cavalcade of thousands of stars." And that is exactly what we had: a clear night and thousands of stars.  Telescopes were set up in an open field and as the night fell you could see different objects in the sky clearer. The planets shine early, then constellations, nebulae and star clusters become more visible as total darkness approaches. We were able to see all of these. Each telescope operator had their telescope pointed to a different part of the celestial target. They were very knowledgeable and willing to talk about the things you were looking at. I was very impressed while looking at Saturn. I could actually see the rings around the planet very clearly.

Telescopes being set up. Note that there is a ladder by each telescope to assist
individuals to look into the eye-piece without touching the telescope.

A reminder to be aware of your body near the telescopes.

Another type of telescope

Two more telescopes. Very different. I guess it is whatever you can afford

Another. Large but very delicate.

Pre-sunset sky. Nice and clear.

     While exploring the park, we found a variety of mushrooms growing everywhere. We even had them at our camp site. Most of them were very large while others were small in comparison. Here are some of them:

     It was a great experience to see very clearly the things in the night sky. Have you looked up lately!

Photo from Parks Canada website. Astronomer adjusting his telescope.

Photo from Parks Canada website. People lined up to look at stars through a telescope.

Photo from Parks Canada website. Night sky seen at Kouchibouguac