I went to the First International Dark Sky Reserve!

For the first post of my blog, I decided to go big!

Located at Mont-Mégantic in the province of Quebec the International Dark Sky Reserve lets people discover the immensity of space. The main goal is to educate people about astronomy and all the latest discovery related to space exploration. The visit is accessible for people of all ages and it can take part during the day and at night by assisting at conferences about astronomy.

The Observatory at the summit of Mont-Mégantic is reserved for astronomy studies but they are having small groups visit inside to show the telescope that the researcher of the university is using to do their deep sky captures.

Now to the reserve. It opened in 2007 and is the very first dark sky reserve certified by the International Dark Sky Association. It is also certified by the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. Its size is about 5300 square KM and it is located in the Eastern Township region. There is 34 cities and town that are participating in the project to preserve the night sky. The population of 225 000 citizens takes pride in preserving this island of darkness.

In the reserve, all individuals and businesses are aware of the preservation of the night sky and they take action to protect it. They are reducing light pollution by bringing to the minimum the amount of light they are using with the use of different technologies. Because of that, we are able to observe the night sky no matter where we are in the reserve.

I was very lucky to have a private tour of the Observatory at the top of Mont-Mégantic. The telescope is 1.6 meters (63 in) Ritchey-Chrétien telescope and it is equipped with a complement of modern instruments. They are using the telescope in imaging, spectroscopy, and polarimetry is routinely conducted at both visible and infrared wavelengths. (source Wikipedia)

To see a detailed list of the instrument used with the telescope you can go visit omm-astro.ca

The Astrolab of Mont-Mégantic hosts visits to the Astronomical Observatory. In the evening, the Astronomical Observatory is exclusively dedicated to research. There is an exception to this rule! A few nights a year, the Observatory’s large telescope is accessible to the public, during the Festival d’Astronomie Populaire du Mont-Mégantic. During these nights, research instruments are replaced by an eyepiece that allows visual observation with the public. During the other evenings of the year, ASTROLab organizes astronomy evenings with its Popular Observatory at the foot of the mountain.
To learn more about these super visit the Mont-Mégantic Observatory (Asrtolab)

My visit to Mont-Mégantic was super awesome and I learned a lot! I had brought my astrophotography gear but there was so much cloud that I could not do anything. I planned to go back soon and hopefully get to take some good images.

Clear skies and don’t forget to look up!
Kevin