Hello Friend,

               Imagine no more dark skies.

How would we as amateur astronomers be able to pursue our hobby then?

     Over 30 years in Toronto, if you went to the North end of the city, there were still farmers fields
and dark skies that I could access.

   Don't want to tell you what' s there now, but it seems Toronto now uses up every square inch to build
condo's.

Fortunately, there are many organizations and individuals working quietly in the background, and making great
efforts to preserve our existing dark skies.

Light pollution abatement is something that concerns us today, and for future generations.

To this end, Rob Dick from Ottawa, in conjunction with the  Royal Astronomical Society of Canada
  has spent much time working on and creating various mandates to this end.

The International Dark Sky association, (of which I'm   a member) is another organization that is doing
a tremendous amount to ensure that we actually have dark skies to observe with.

These are matters not to be taken lightly.  (Ok, ignore the pun there....)

In Canada,   we are fortunate to have several Dark Sky Preserves.

These are areas, where amateur astronomers can expect to observe under dark skies.

Where are these places?

Here are a couple located in Ontario, and there are several others across Canada.

1) Gordon's Park Manitoulin Island:

     Rita Gordon and husband Terry, and Manager Paul Beduhn have gone to great effort to make
    this an amateur astronomers night sky observing location a delight.

2) Torrance Barrens, Muskoka

A great spot in the Muskoka region

There are more being created all the time.

If you have seen the night skies,  slowly dissapearing over the past several years, then take action
and support those organizations that care about ensuring our night skies don't disappear in the blink of an eye.

Clear Skies,

Ray "dark skies now"  Khan

PS  Sadly, in the inner city, kids rarely look up anymore, because the sky is so washed out there is
      little to see. However, the truth is that through a telescope, even in Toronto, there are many
      night sky objects to observe. And this is borne out by several amateur astronomers I know
      that are city bound.