Go Over to the Darker Side

North America loses 6 percent of its dark skies every year — but you’d never know it at Jasper National Park Dark Sky Preserve’s annual festival. During the week-plus celebration of the night sky, the preserve — the world’s second largest at 4,335 square miles — attracts hundreds of visitors from across the continent to celebrate all things astronomical. “There’s nothing like this in North America,” says Peter McMahon, a space journalist and self-described wilderness astronomer. “It’s kind of the Disney World of dark-sky preserves.”