City of lights (page 2)
After the first night’s lecture, we head to bed in the centre’s dormitory. I
don’t realize then that what’s politely listed on the timetable as “auroral
viewing” involves a madman rousting us out of our beds hollering “Showtime!” in
the wee hours of the morning. Auroral activity spikes after 11 p.m. at this latitude, and
the lights ebb and flow several times over the course of the night. Between viewings, I join
a few other group members in the cafeteria to thaw and debrief. Late-night excitement and
drastic temperature changes make us talkative and ravenous, and after one big show, Molly
McNulty, a 58-year-old go-getter from Washington state, raids the pantry for cookies.
As the cookie caper suggests, the course is a bit like summer camp, except with colder weather
and older campers. We sleep in dorm rooms, in bunks made of whitewashed pine boards and covered
in mismatched blankets and quilts. The aptly named Arctic Hallway — in the morning,
you can see your breath — connects the sleeping quarters to the communal areas. In
a small reading room filled with old magazines and stray cribbage boards, a computer monitor
delivers all-important weather readings. Across the hall is a cafeteria with long tables
and a continuous supply of coffee. Mealtimes offer good plain food and lots of it, and we
take turns helping with the washing up.
The Churchill Northern Studies Centre, an independent nonprofit facility, has operated since
1976 with a dual mandate of research and education. Located at the juncture of three eco
systems, within hiking distance of tundra, northern boreal forest and marine environments,
the centre offers accommodation and support (including polar bear lookouts) to scientists
from across Canada and around the world. According to Michael Goodyear, the centre’s
multi-tasking executive director, these research activities are subsidized by the centre’s
educational programs.
“They provide a financial resource for the centre,” he says, “and they
foster an exchange between north and south.”
Churchill’s polar bears and beluga whales are the current ecotourism stars, but the
rise in “astro-tourism” — trips to visit major observatories or chase astronomical
events, like eclipses, around the globe — means that the northern lights are beginning
to draw crowds.
The centre makes an evocative site for astronomy, situated on the former Churchill Rocket
Research Range, which operated from 1957 to 1988. During its heyday, more than 3,000 test
rockets were fired from the range. “If you go walking or snowmobiling around here,
you’ll see these tailpipes sticking out of the snow,” says Carley Basler, a 28-year-old
research technician. “It must have been wild here in the ’60s — all those
scientists with their lab coats and pocket protectors setting off rockets. That’s so
space age!”
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