Hundreds of astronomers and science buffs are expected to descend on Jasper this month for what will likely be the largest Dark Sky Festival yet.

After an extremely successful festival last year, organizers expanded this year’s program with two headline acts and added the Jasper Planetarium, among other events, to the 10-day celebration.

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield will return Oct. 23 to share stories about his time spent both on and off the planet and his experience aboard the International Space Station.

“Each year, we keep upping the ante,” said Peter McMahon, Jasper’s astronomer-in-residence who is also a senior presenter with the Jasper Planetarium.

“It’s a great chance to see a space-related celebrity like Chris [Hadfield] in person. With the Mythbusters this year and some truly world-famous people coming next year, the Jasper Dark Sky Festival has quickly become one of the highest-profile yearly astronomy events in North America, if not the world.”

Last year, Hadfield launched rockets on Centennial Field, played music with Jay Ingram—former host of the Discovery Channel’s Daily Planet—and gave a keynote address to a sold out audience of more than 900 people, including 700 people from out of town.

In anticipation of the big event, organizers have expanded the weekend festival to accommodate 1,200 people inside the tent.

To compliment Hadfield’s keynote address, Grant Imahara, Kari Byron and Tory Belleci, the former co-hosts of Discovery Channel’s hit show Mythbusters, will regale the audience with stories about the show, Oct. 24.

“We’re extremely excited to come to Jasper,” said Imahara. “I had not heard of the Dark Sky Festival, but when it was described to me, I was like ‘wow, this is something that I would do even if I wasn’t a presenter.’”

Imahara joined Mythbusters in 2005 and spent the better part of 10 years working on the show before stepping away in 2014.

“When we were approached to do the Dark Sky Festival it just seemed like a natural fit because for 10 years we’ve been essentially teaching science on TV,” said Imahara, explaining the trio will share stories about their experiences proving and busting common science myths.

“It’s really a chance for us to get together and tell some fun, behind the scenes stories about the show.”

When asked what his favourite myth was over his 10-year career, Imahara said it’s difficult to narrow it down, but if he had to choose one it would be the episode where the Mythbusters tested what would happen if they put a bull in a china shop.

“We were working on a myth called Red Flag to a Bull,” recalled Imahara. “What we wanted to do was just something fun that we knew was going to cause all kinds of destruction; we’d put the bull in a shop with all these fragile dishes and it would destroy everything and we’d have a laugh and go home, that was the plan.”

After purchasing dozens of dishes at a thrift store and setting up a fake china shop in a rodeo ring, they let a bull loose, but nothing happened.

“The bull ran around the shop without knocking over a single dish and we thought that’s very strange, maybe we got a bad bull, a non-violent one,” said Imahara with a chuckle. “So we put another one in, same result, no dishes broken. OK fine, let’s put two bulls in, still no dishes broken.”

He said it took four of five bulls until eventually one dish got knocked over, surprising everyone.

“It was absolutely mystifying to witness this.”

In addition to the two headline acts on Oct. 23 and 24, the festival will officially kick off Oct. 16 with a dark sky photography workshop at the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge and aurora-gazing on Pyramid Island with McMahon.

On Oct. 17, there will be stargazing on the Glacier Skywalk and at Athabasca Glacier with an astronomer from the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.

In town, the Jasper planetarium will host a four-course dinner inside the planetarium, designed by the chefs from Mountain Park Lodges.

According to the event’s webpage, patrons will enjoy their main course while watching a cosmic tour of the solar system. If that’s not enough, dessert and coffee will take place during a trip from the centre of the Milky Way to the edge of the universe.

Other activities that night include stargazing at the Jasper SkyTram and dark sky stories at the Old Fire Hall, reflecting the diversity of Canada’s Aboriginal peoples.

Mid-week, on Oct. 20, there are two activities being organized by the Jasper Planetarium and the Jasper SkyTram to catch the Orionid meteor shower. At its peak, up to 20 meteors will be visible every hour, depending on the weather.

The following weekend, starting Oct. 23, things really pick up.

TELUS World of Science in Edmonton will be hosting a rocket-building workshop at Centennial Field with launch day the following afternoon.

Hadfield will kick off the evening with a keynote speech followed by a free evening of stargazing at Lake Annette, with programming by TELUS World of Science, Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, dark sky photographers and Parks Canada interpreters. There will also be another dark sky photography workshop offered at the Jasper Park Lodge.

To end the evening, Mountain Galleries will host the official after-party.

The following—and final day—of the festival includes nine different events, including, of course, the big bang expo, which will see rockets propelled high into the sky.

There will also be free space and science seminars throughout the day covering a variety of topics including aliens and extraterrestrial life.

In addition to the seminars, TELUS World of Science staff will make science come alive with dozens of science experiments free of charge. There will also be an opportunity to check out the sun and do some daytime solar viewing with astronomers from the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.

After a full day of science experiments, the former hosts of Mythbusters will take over in the evening, sharing stories about the show and answering audience questions.

For the full schedule, including events not mentioned in the story, visit www.jasperdarksky.travel.

Paul Clarke

reporter@fitzhugh.ca