A year later , in April 2000 , the west coast got its own preserve . This time , the project was helmed by Paul Greenhalgh , a federal officer , amateur astronomer and president of the Fraser Valley Astronomers Society . Inspired by the Torrance Barrens story , Paul pushed to establish a similar preserve at McDonald Park in Abbotsford , BC , less than 100 km outside Vancouver .
Paul can trace his love of the stars back to a specific evening : It was November 17 , 1966 , and he was nine years old . That night was the annual Leonid meteor shower . “ At that time ,” Paul says , “ Canada was at the bow of the ship .” The earth ’ s position gave Canucks front-row seats to one of the most spectacular showers in recent history ; records show up to 170,000 shimmering pieces of debris streaking through our atmosphere every hour .
Although the Leonid occurs every year around November 18 , a result of Earth ’ s passing through the tail of the Tempel-Tuttle comet , the 1966 shower is remembered as particularly beautiful . About every 30 years , the comet glides near the sun , loading even more debris into its tail — 1966 was one such year . “ It was like somebody was up there with a grinding wheel ,” Paul remembers . “ Letting it rip , every colour in the rainbow .” He watched from Richmond , a suburb of Vancouver , the night sky at the time still perfectly visible over the city .
Ever since that night , Paul has visited the stars as often as possible . But as the years progressed , he says , “ astronomers have to go farther and farther and farther afield to study the night sky .” When he encountered the story of Peter Goering and the Torrance Barrens , he knew what he had to do next .
McDonald Park is very different from Torrance Barrens , but brings its own advantages to stargazing . The park hugs a curve in the Fraser River where the current slows to a crawl , a lush area with willows draped into the water . Just across the river , a commanding ridge of the Sumas Mountains rises into frame . Although it blocks the horizon , this ridge also intercepts much of the light from nearby towns . The area is designated a Provincial Agricultural Land Reserve and Flood Plain , so overdevelopment is no concern .
Upon arriving at the location , a series of signs welcomes stargazers and directs them to a circular concrete pad in a clearing at the edge of the park , lined with benches and with plenty of space to set up telescopes . Set within this viewing area , there are dedications to two avid astronomers who have passed on ; now , they have an eternally perfect view to watch the stars crest the ridge of the mountain .
Although stars are unfathomably distant , they ’ ve been intimately connected with humankind since we first turned our gaze skyward . In 2003 , psychologist William Kelly coined the concept of noctcaelador — a combination of the Latin words nocturnus , for night , caelum , for sky , and adorare , adore . This was his attempt to distill the emotional bond between humans and the night sky .
The word can now be considered the battle cry for people like Peter Goering and Paul Greenhalgh . Our fascination with the stars embodies our finest qualities : exploration and curiosity , wonder and creativity . When we lose a star , we forfeit much more than just a beautiful view — we give up our sense of place in this vast universe , the greatest parts of ourselves .
PHOTO AT RIGHT : JOHN ENTWISTLE
Few people embody noctcaelador as much as Eddie Jara of Stouffville , Ontario . Sparked as a young boy by his father and Carl Sagan ’ s famous Cosmos series , Eddie has nurtured a lifelong love affair with the stars . Lying in the backseat on stargazing trips to the Ontario countryside as a boy , he remembers asking his dad where the universe ended . As time went on and his responsibilities grew , Eddie stargazed less and less . But in recent years he ’ s dusted off his telescope and craned his eyes upward once more . This August , on the one- year anniversary of his father ’ s passing , Eddie promised his mother that he ’ d “ drive us both out to a dark sky , marvel and remember how we were as a family .”
PHOTO COURTESY OF EDDIE JARA