Before people in Lac La Biche County get a chance to see an unobstructed view of the stars, they can get a chance to understand what they’ re looking at in a deeper, more satisfying way.
Before people in Lac La Biche County get a chance to see an unobstructed view of the stars, they can get a chance to understand what they’ re looking at in a deeper, more satisfying way.
The person offering this will be Joan Marie Galat, a non-fiction writer who will be making an appearance at the Stuart McPherson Library in Lac La Biche on Sept. 12.
She will be giving two talks at the library that day: the first will be on her book Dot to Dot: Stories in the Stars, which is part of the Dot to Dot series she has been publishing since 2001. The second of which is on her newest book Dark Matters: Nature’ s Reaction to Light Pollution was published earlier this summer.
The subjects of her books were particularly appropriate, as it will take place shortly before the first annual Dark Sky Preserve event in Lakeland Provincial Park on Sept. 16.
“The library timed it that way,” the author said.
The park was recently named a Dark Sky Preserve, which means that measures are taken within that area to prevent light pollution. The event will give people a chance to learn about and view the night sky in a tranquil place away from streetlights with other people around them.
Though Galat has written two adult non-fiction books and writes a lot of freelance articles for adults, her astronomy books are aimed to a pre-teen audience. Aside from reading and discussing the subject matter in the library, she said the books could also be read in settings like the middle of a dark provincial park.
“They’ re meant to be read out loud,” she said. “Scout troops love them.”
The author started writing at the age of nine and got her start at age 12 after getting an honorable mention in an Edmonton Journal contest. After being noticed from that, she was asked by her local paper in Sherwood Park to write a non-fiction column where she researched answers to reader questions about various subjects.
“That was my start in non-fiction,” she said. “As a kid I enjoyed reading, and when I buy books, non-fiction was what I wanted to pick.”
Her writing career took her many places, including for a time in Lac La Biche. She was a naturalist in Sir Winston Churchill Park and also worked in a radio station in Lac La Biche in the late 1980s, where she learned to write radio news and commercials.
What she has accomplished since being in Lac La Biche is publishing most of her books, including the ones about astronomy and the ecosystem.
Galat said that she has been curious about the night sky as a subject since she was a small child, but her newest book, about the harm of light pollution, makes the point that it’ s not just about obscuring stars in the night sky.
Galat referenced the relatively new science of scotobiology, for example, which looks at how darkness impacts the ecosystem. One of the side effects of light pollution, for example, is that it can lead to an upset in migratory patterns.
“It can cause birds to fly into high rises,” she said, among a long list of obstructions to nature.
Galat said she has taken part as a private citizen in activism surrounding the subject of light pollution, but she has had endorsement from experts in the field, including an astronaut.
“I was endorsed by Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques,” she said, also noting that her books were endorsed. “It’ s really meaningful to have their contributions.”
The readings will take place at Stuart McPherson Library at 2 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., while the Dark Sky Preserve will take place at the Pinehurst Lake day use area starting at 4 p.m.
