Alberta Parks is inviting stargazers to sit back and look up this weekend at Sir Winston Churchill Provincial Park.
The stargazing for the Lakeland Dark Sky Celebration will run from 7:00-11:00 p.m. on Saturday night at the Dark Sky Preserve. Alberta has five designated Dark Sky Preserves which are designated areas where artificial lighting is reduced to a minimum and the reduction of light pollution is promoted and encouraged.
The park will have some free events with Parks after Dark, an interpretive guided hike, and a guided telescope viewing. Lakeland Provincial Park is one of just a handful of Dark Sky Preserves in Alberta.
The other four designated Dark Sky Preserves are the Beaver Hills which encompasses Miquelon Lake Provincial Park, Cooking Lake-Blackfoot Provincial Recreation Area, and Elk Island National Park. The second preserve is in Cypress Hills which encompasses Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park, in southeastern Alberta and southwestern Saskatchewan. The final two Dark Sky Preserves are in Jasper and Wood Buffalo.