Viewing Nights Held Rain or Shine at Leif Everson Observatory

With the first peep of the spring peepers, Crossroads at Big Creek launched a Challenge Match to raise money to expand their parking lot in an environmentally responsible way. They hope to develop a storm water runoff system to ensure that the water leaving the lot and entering the wetlands will be as clean as possible. They’ve chosen the spring peeper as the “poster frog” because one of the goals is to keep the ponds around the Collins Learning Center pollution-free.

Crossroads must install parking lot lights as well, but they’re determined that these lights meet Dark Sky Initiatives. The obvious reason for shielding light is that the parking lot expansion is northeast of the Leif Everson Observatory. Excess light would obscure the circumpolar constellations and asterisms for Door Peninsula Astronomical Society (DPAS) Viewing Nights.

The next Viewing Night at the Astronomy Campus is April 9 at 8 pm. Join DPAS members in exploring the night sky. If weather is good, view the Door County sky from the StarGarden, but if skies are cloudy, images will be screened from other telescopes. This is free and open to the public. The Astronomy Campus is located at 2200 Utah Street.

The Collins Learning Center is open 2 – 4:30 pm daily. During construction to reach the Crossroads main entrance from the highway detour, take County T, crossing the highway and driving to Big Creek Road. Turn right and drive to Lily Bay Road. Turn right again. Lily Bay merges with Michigan Street at Crossroads. To reach the Astronomy Center, follow Utah Street (which will cross the highway during construction) or follow Memorial Drive under the bridge, turn onto 18th Place, and then turn right and go up the hill to the Cove Road Intersection.