Starry night.(Torrance Barrens Conservation Reserve)

A BARREN PATCH OF SHIELD COUNTRY IS CANADA'S FIRST PARK FOR STAR GAZERS

THE MOON is only a quarter moon, but it's bright enough to cast a few dim shadows. Now I can see I came here to see. Ahead of me in the furrowed rock is a puddle of rainwater, and in the small pool sits something that might be a pearl or pale opal. I'm pretty sure it's Jupiter. The puddle reflects the patch of eastern sky above the trees, and that's where you'll find Jupiter at this time of night. I'm starring to get my bearings now. That's the Big Dipper to the north -- everybody knows that one -- and stretching overhead, fainter than a wisp blown from a snowdrift, is the Milky Way. Here, the land seems to bring the night sky closer.

Consider this place a kind of overnight harbour. You put in with the darkness and, if the weather is good, step onto the shores of an immense candled continent. Here, you can look out across two million years, see the seasons before they officially arrive, rake the measure of the universe using finger and thumb. The spot is called Torrance Barrens Conservation Reserve, and it is Canada's first "dark-sky preserve" -- an area set aside for viewing the stars. It's not just for the stars, but they have become one of the main attractions. Torrance Barrens is in the Muskoka region, about 150 kilometres north of Toronto, and the reserve is an outpost of…