Something we discovered after moving to Central Oregon is there is minimal light pollution. Even around Bend the night sky is spectacular. A couple of local facilities are open in the warmer months to help the public understand all those bright lights overhead.
The Nature Center at Sunriver has an Observatory open to the public Wednesday thru Saturday evenings and even boasts of the “largest collection of telescopes for public viewing.”
On the top of a mountain half an hour east of Bend is University of Oregon’s Pine Mountain Observatory. Primarily a research center, they do open up to the public on Friday and Saturday nights. There are fewer telescopes, but also fewer people clamoring for a peek at the heavens.
We picked the first dark moon night of the season (they open from Memorial Day to end of September) and made the short journey to the top of Pine Mountain. This night the cumulous clouds offered an impressive distant lightning storm and brought some additional drama to the sunset.
In the end they obscured our view of the Milky Way and southern sky. It wasn’t the astrological viewing we’d hoped for.
However, there was a quick look at Mars and we watched the international space station streak across the evening sky. Did you realize it flies past us every 90 minutes? Who Knew?
Again the pics are fantastic!