OPEN DAILY, May 1 – late Oct (then Weds – Sat, Dec-April) excluding public holidays
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On a first-come, first-served basis, visitors without access to transportation who wish to come to The Jasper Planetarium may take the Fairmont shuttle to our location at Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge (JPL) at no charge – please call the Fairmont at (780) 852-3301 to confirm if the shuttle is running when you wish to attend. If the shuttle is not running or for any of our other locations, you can call Caribou Cabs at (780) 931-2334 , or Mountain Express Taxi at (780) 852-4555 for transportation.
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NOT AT ALL! We are open to the public. As with all on-site attractions at the hotel, you DO NOT need to be staying here to buy admission to our dark sky facility. (If you DO happen to be staying at the hotel, bonus! You’re just steps away from us.)
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At Jasper’s latitude, we get to see some sort of aurora every 3-4 days (not factoring in for cloud cover). Such displays can last for a few minutes or a few hours (contrary to popular belief, auroras can be visible any month of the year, as long as it is dark.)
Even if an aurora isn’t easily visible to the naked eye, it may still be possible to get a photo of a green glow on the horizon.
For more, check out our Astronomy Forecast page
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We can predict the aurora up to 3 days in advance as 2-3 days is the approximate travel-time of the particles that erupt from the sun to cause auroras on earth.
While telescopes are not required to see the aurora, our team of astronomy and astrophotography guides offers expert knowledge and deep space viewing as the perfect activity to do while waiting to see if an aurora will appear.
For more, check out our Astronomy Forecast page
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Weather in the Jasper Rockies can change every few minutes.
Typically, in a given week, we are able to see something through our telescopes at some point in the evening roughly 6 out of 7 nights each week.
For more, check out our Astronomy Forecast page.
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We operate rain-or-shine, clear-or-cloudy, even when snowing. Because it is indoors, our planetarium is not affected by the weather.
While we do not need the sky to be completely clear to use our telescopes, we CAN NOT guarantee clear skies. We DO NOT provide refunds if skies are too cloudy, but we will offer a “rain check” to re-book for another date.
Our outdoor telescope experience is a learning opportunity with a variety of “weather-proof” activities AND telescope stargazing.
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To ensure the magical experience of being in the planetarium is not interrupted by any wee-folk who need to leave due to being startled or upset in our dome theatre, our minimum age is 4 (no exceptions).
If you are traveling with any children under the age of 4, there are a few workarounds you can take advantage of:
- For Planetarium Experience ONLY, have 1 parent/adult stay outside the dome with your young child (you can also do swaps where some adults go in the dome for one of our time-slots while the other adult goes in after they’ve ‘traded’ off with another adult to watch junior.
- Come for our Planetarium & Telescope Experience and do the above, but all can participate in the Telescope Experience outside.
- Make use of local service My Jasper Nanny (the official nanny service of Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge) to arrange child-care for those in your party under 4 years of age (must be arranged in advance – you will not have time to arrange this at the planetarium).
Unaccompanied minors (ages 17 and under) are not permitted in the planetarium without an adult who has purchased admission.
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A planetarium is a domed theatre that simulates the night sky by use of a projection system. In contrast, an observatory is a building that houses one or more telescopes for live viewing of the sky under a retractable roof. While we do offer telescopes in a nightly educational experience, we are not an observatory.
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No. Our planetarium experience is a world-exclusive interactive audience participation experience created specifically for and about the unique views in and above the dark skies of the Jasper Rockies. Our theatre is the only location this is delivered. As one tour manager put it, “I can see a planetarium show anywhere. This is the story of Jasper in a planetarium.
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A dark sky preserve is basically an astronomy park, where local rules and bylaws defend the night against light pollution from city lights.
In 2011, management of what is now The Jasper Planetarium proposed to and worked with Parks Canada to facilitate Jasper undergoing an exhaustive light audit before qualifying as the largest (at the time) of the world’s 40 dark sky preserves.