Jasper Dark Sky Preserve: Stargazing, the Jasper Planetarium & Seeing the Northern Lights

In 2011, the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada designated all 11,228 square kilometres of Jasper National Park as an official Dark Sky Preserve, making it the second-largest Dark Sky Preserve in the world (and the largest with a town inside its borders, because Jasper Townsite retrofitted its streetlamps with downward-shielded amber bulbs to eliminate skyglow). Step just five minutes outside town on a clear, moonless night and you can see the glowing core of the Milky Way, the Andromeda Galaxy with the naked eye, and often the dancing green and purple curtains of the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis).

1. The 4 Best Easy Stargazing & Aurora Spots Within 10 to 25 Minutes of Town

Because you are looking for northern horizon views (for the Aurora Borealis) and southern horizon views (for the summer Milky Way core) reflected in calm water, drive to one of these four safe, paved roadside pull-offs after dark (always bring a red-light headlamp so you do not ruin your night vision, plus bear spray):

1. Pyramid Island (10 Mins North of Town, Best Overall): walk across the wooden footbridge onto Pyramid Island; looking north-west, Pyramid Mountain frames the Northern Lights, while looking south across the water frames the Milky Way.
2. Lake Annette & Lac Beauvert (10 Mins East of Town): flat, paved paths right beside the lakeshore with wide-open 360-degree skies.
3. Medicine Lake (25 Mins East up Maligne Lake Road): completely isolated behind a mountain ridge from even the faintest town glow.
4. Athabasca Falls & The Columbia Icefield (Highway 93 South): rated a pure Bortle Class 1 (the darkest possible night-sky rating on Earth).

2. The Jasper Planetarium & October's Annual 'Jasper Dark Sky Festival'

• The Jasper Planetarium (At Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge, Open Year-Round): even if the sky happens to be cloudy on the night you visit, book the Dome Theatre + Telescope Experience inside the geodesic dome of the Jasper Planetarium. After a 40-minute live-guided tour of the Jasper cosmos and Indigenous star-lore inside the dome, you step outside to look through the largest telescopes in the Canadian Rockies.
• The Jasper Dark Sky Festival (Every October): for two weeks every October, when nights are long and dark before deep winter cold arrives, Jasper hosts astronauts, space scientists and the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra performing under the stars at Lac Beauvert.