Mont Megantic Dark Sky Reserve

Dark Sky Places Traveling Fellowship Part 1

Thanks to the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, I have received a traveling fellowship to visit all of the International Dark Sky Places in North America between 22 August and 03 October 2011. This series of blog posts will detail my visit to each of these  very dark places.

Mont Megantic International Dark Sky Reserve

The Galactic Centre from the summit of Mont Megantic

Situated a few hours east of Montreal in the Quebec province of eastern Canada, Mont Megantic National Park is home to a research observatory, a public observatory, and the ASTROlab science centre. In 2007 it was named by the International Dark-skies Association (IDA) as the world’s first International Dark Sky Park (IDSR).

This designation differs from the similarly named International Dark Sky Park (IDSP) designation in that the IDSR was introduced to allow parks that did not fit in to the US national park model to still aspire towards IDA status; that is, the IDSPs were created to apply to large parks under federal control with no population within the park boundary; the IDSR status is intended for parks who want to work with their surrounding communities towards darker skies for all.

And this is exactly what Mont Megantic National Park did, and in 2007 it was announced as the world’s first (and as yet only) International Dark Sky Reserve.

Astronomy Tourism at Mont Megantic IDSR

Mont Megantic IDSR has a range of incredible resources for astronomy tourism, including the ASTROlab science centre, a public observatory, and a professional observatory with a 1.6m scope which is sometimes opened to the public to use.

The ASTROlab runs astronomy events every Friday night over the summer, including a visit to the ASTROlab, observing at the public observatory (weather permitting) and a tour of the professional observatory.

Mont Megantic Observatory 1.6m scope

Each of these resources existed long before the IDSR status was conferred: the professional observatory was built in 1979; the ASTROlab and the public observatory in the 1980s. It was in part to protect the dark skies which these facilities rely on that the IDSR status was granted.

However there are two main difference between Mont Megantic IDSR and any dark sky places in the UK. They are: there is already a well-established winter tourism sector in the area, based around snow sports, and so astronomy tourism isn’t offering to fill an otherwise empty season, as it does in the UK; and it is possible to run astronomy events at Mont Megantic during summer months, unlike the UK, due to Mont Megantic being around 5-10° further south that the UK.

These factors mean that tourism seems to have been far less of a driver in creating the IDSR at Mont Megantic that it is in the UK, where it is really the sole reason, and the driving force in persuading the community around any dark sky place that there are larger benefits than those that accrue to astronomers.

During my visit to Mont Megantic IDSR I stayed at the incredible Haut Bois Dormant in Notre Dam des Bois, just a few miles from the park, run by the delightful Julie Demers. The entire length of the road running through Notre Dam des Bois was festooned with flags advertising the IDSR, and inside the guest house the IDSR was similarly promoted. However speaking to Julie it seems like the astronomy tourism sector is still to grow to its full potential. One limiting factor seems to be the fact that organised astronomy events are only run on Friday nights, and for the rest of the week you’re on your own.

Flag promoting the IDSR in Notre Dam Des Bois

During my visit I met with four people involved in a variety of ways in astronomy tourism at the park. My visit was arranged by Pierre Brosseau, the communications manager at the ASTROlab, who explained a little of the philosophy behind the creation of the IDSR, which he suggested – as did others – was more to do with fact that it was the “right thing to do” and not as much about generating money for the local economy through tourism.

I was also given a guided tour of the professional observatory by Robert Lamontange, the executive director of the observatory, and later that night by Bernard Malenfant, chairman of the board, and founder of the Astronomy Super Festival, who had been there as long as the observatory (legend has it he came in the box with the primary mirror).

The next day I met with Tania Pinard, the Megantic area tourism officer who took me on a tour of businesses that use astronomy to attract visitors in innovative ways, including the Spa Le Montagnais, which offers stargazing from outdoors hot tubs during the Perseid Meteor Shower!

Later that afternoon I met with Sebastien Giguere, the head of education at ASTROlab, who gave me a wealth of information about the public programme within the IDSR.

Dark Sky Survey of Mont Megantic IDSR

On my final night at the park I went to the top of the mountain and took some SQM-L readings of the sky, as well as some astrophotos to gauge just how dark the sky is. The SQM reading average of six readings was 21.4, very similar to Galloway Forest Dark Sky Park and Sark Dark Sky Island. I repeated this reading in the back garden of the Haut Bois Dormant in Notre Dam Des Bois town, and the reading was 21.3, not appreciably different! The Milky Way stood out prominently in both locations, and could be seen all the way to the horizon.

All-sky image showing Milky Way and galactic centre from Mont Megantic IDSR

 

iPhone Astrophotography: My First Attempts

This evening I decided to try some iPhone astrophotography. This blog post will let you see how I got on, and give you the info you need to get started yourself.

While the iPhone 4 camera is far from ideal for astrophotography (the sensor is small compared with a DSLR; in fact it’s not even as good as most point and shoot cameras) it does have one distinct advantage – it’s usually very much to hand, just in my pocket in fact.

There are two kinds of astrophotography you can do with an iPhone: with and without a telescope. The former is called afocal astrophotography, but it is the latter that I tried out tonight: just using the iPhone camera, some extra hardware, a 59p app, and a clear sky.

Afocal Astrophotography. Simply hold the camera to the eyepiece of a telescope (or binoculars) and snap a picture of whatever is in the field of view. For this you can just use the standard camera app on the phone to snap a picture, and it’ll use software to ensure that the image is exposed correctly (although this might not always work). I’ve tried this once before, using the Moon as my target, with decent enough results:

Pic of the moon taken on my iPhone 3GS held to the eyepiece of my 110mm TAL-1 telescope

You can also buy several apps that claim to allow you to take longer exposures, even letting you use a bulb setting (this isn’t actually possible with the iPhone shutter hardware – each of these apps is actually using a clever software work around, but you’re not getting a true 60 second exposure when you set your “shutter speed’ for 60 seconds).

The apps that I use are:

Slow Shutter Cam: has shutter speeds of 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 8, 15′ and a B (bulb) setting, plus a crucial self timer delay to prevent wobble when pushing the “button” to take the shot (£0.59 on iTunes App Store)

Magic Shutter: has shutter speeds of 1, 2, 4, 8, 15, 30 and 60′ and a B (bulb) setting, but no self timer (£1.79 on iTunes App Store)

Both of these apps have a variety of software setting to allow you to get the best picture; tonight I used Magic Shutter with a 60s shutter speed.

(These apps might allow you to take better images while the camera is mounted to a telescope, but I haven’t tried this yet. Watch this space for test of this later in the year.)

Afocal Astrophotography Hardware

The main obstacle to taking long exposure shots with the iPhone (apart from the fact that the hardware won’t actually let you!) is that you need to make sure that the iPhone doesn’t move at all during the duration of the exposure, so holding it in place with your hand isn’t an option. Luckily there’s a great gadget available from a company call Magnilux. The device is called the Magnilux MX-1 Telescope Adaptor, which allows you to attach your iPhone to any telescope eyepiece. It also doubles as a tripod adaptor.

Magnilux MX-1 Telescope Adaptor

Magnilux MX-1 Telescope Adaptor with iPhone 4 attached (works with any iPhone model)

Magnilux MX-1 Telescope Adaptor configured as a tripod mount

Astrophotography Without a Telescope

Tonight I didn’t connect my iPhone to my telescope since my target, the International Space Station (ISS), moves so quickly and travels across such a large part of the sky that you need as wide a field as possible to catch it.

To capture the ISS you need a long exposure (use Magic Shutter app – see above). The pass tonight lasted 4’19″, and traveled 90° through the sky (from 254° WSW to 164° SSE). The iPhone 4 camera field of view is only 60.8° so I couldn’t capture the whole pass. Instead I decided to try to capture a 60s exposure as the ISS rose to its highest and brightest, at 206° (SSW).

With a 60″ exposure, of course, I had to have my iPhone mounted to a tripod. I could have used the Magnilux MX-1 Adaptor set up for tripod mode (see above) but instead I opted to use my new Kungl iPhone case with built in tripod thread, which I attached directly to my tripod.

Kungl iPhone Case

This held the iPhone still, and using the Magic Shutter app set to 60″ exposure I managed to get this image:

The ISS passing over Glasgow, iPhone 4 Camera, Magic Shutter App set for 60" exposure, 2344, 23 June 2011

Far from ideal, but not bad given (a) it was my first attempt, (b) I had one chance to take the image before the ISS faded from view, (c) the sky was very bright (this was taken at 2344 on 23 June 2011, just after midsummer, with the sky just out of civil twilight), (d)  cars kept driving past (note the light art in the foreground!).

Once the sky darkens again later in the year I hope to test this set up under a truly dark sky to see whether it can pick up sharp star images. I suspect that might be tricky!

If anyone else has tried iPhone Astrophotography please let me know in the comments.