River of Heaven
Several years ago I travelled down to southern AB, where I spent 5 days exploring and photographing old abandoned buildings that dot the landscape. While traveling in the deep southeast corner of AB, I crossed over in to Saskatchewan and made my way over to the "Old Man On His Back" Nature Conservancy Ranch to photograph the Plains Bison that reside on the ranch.
This ranch was once a cattle ranch, but was donated to the Nature Conservancy of Canada by the previous owners that had run cows on the grasslands that make up the ranch. The cows were removed and replaced with Plains Bison bringing these grasslands full circle with bison returning for the first time in 150 years.
I spent several nights camped near the ranch house now the visitors center, and to say the nights skies were to die for if you like stunning inky black skies is an understatement.
The first night I crawled out of my tent at 2am I was bowled over with the sight of the Milky Way appearing as though I could reach up and touch it.
The inky black skies at the OMB are stunning to say the least, with the Milky Way Galaxy visible like you have never seen it before.
Here is one of my favorite quotes about the Milky Way taken from an astronomy book in my library by Robert Burnham.....
"Look now upon the River of Heaven,
Sky-Road of the Immortals,
White with the star-frost of a billion years …
I also have a plate bearing this quote riveted to the side of my telescope that I built in my workshop seen here.....
https://www.jerryclement.ca/MachineShop/Projects-In-Metal/i-9PFSZs4
