Every Friday night in July and August, Brian Mould guides guests in viewing the night sky above Haliburton Forest. On Aug. 2, I joined him and others for a 2.5-hour presentation.
Star-gazers get lost in space through a telescope built into the observatory in the middle of the woods, sitting on 100,000 acres of undeveloped land, giving way to night skies that are void of light pollution, the main obstacle to night sky viewing.
Mould said stargazing and astronomy is a hobby for him and when there are guests, “I just try to explain what they are looking at, and our position in relation to the stars.”
The Forest was looking for someone to run its astronomy program and placed ads. Mould applied and got the job. “A bunch of us used to go to Algonquin Park in September every new moon and set up telescopes on the beach and do a public observing up there, too. But we had to end it about 10 years ago. It just got too big.” The Forest’s astronomy night has been around since the early 90s.
Last Friday, we walked about five minutes to the observatory. Mould introduced us to the Little and Big Dipper, the Summer Triangle, Arcturus, and other constellations. On a clear night, one can observe dark sky objects such as the Andromeda Galaxy. Mould also mentioned how in some years you can see planets, and how sometimes you can see the “beautiful swath” of the Milky Way Galaxy.
Diane Dudley, from Campbellford, came to see the wolves and decided to look up what else there was to do in the Forest and found the astronomy night. “A few years ago, I had the opportunity to look through a telescope similar to this, but I didn’t get to see a lot. So, I thought, in this experience, we might be able to get a better view,” she said. “It’s so amazing to be able to see just a small sample of what’s out there. It’s fascinating there’s so, so much.”
Mercy Yulien, from Toronto, added, “I love stargazing. I wanted to give my children the opportunity to experience it through a telescope, because it’s not something that we have accessible in the city, unless you go to York University and go to the observatory there. But it’s not something you can just do. So, coming out into the forest and stargazing by actually blocking out city lights, it’s an experience they won’t have otherwise.”
Yulien said she learned how to find true north.
Mould said, “we’re lucky up here in Haliburton, we have beautiful dark skies. Anybody coming up to the Haliburton Forest at night time, they get to see really dark skies. If they come up from the city, they might have only seen just half a dozen stars.”
