Niches Land Trust at Walnut Ridge

This is a late write up, but on September 21st, the local chapter of Niches Land Trust held an event at Arbor America, West Point, IN. Walnut Ridge Observatory is located at Arbor America and 20-30 people came to the stargazing event.  We were fortunate to have what was the best night of the year so far for seeing and transparency and the views of objects, from the Moon and Neptune to the Dumbell, M31, M13, the Ring Nebula, Alberio and other deep sky objects, was superb.

In the video below, I took a quick pan from the west to the east at sunset. The sky is showing a fine example of the Girdle of Venus, surrounding us in a pinkish glow (called an anti-twilight arch). The dark layer visible especially in the east, separating the pink glow from the horizon, is the shadow of the earth itself.

Panning from the sunset sky to the east. 

Luminaries light the way to the observatory