Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest

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Experience Bernheim at Night

In the night sky over ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) observatory at Paranal, the Moon shines along with two bright companions : already aloft in the heavens and glowing in the centre of the image is Venus, Earth’s closest planetary neighbour, and, to its right, the giant, though more distant planet, Jupiter. Such apparent celestial near misses — although the heavenly bodies are actually tens to hundreds of millions of kilometres apart — are called conjunctions. Still other sights delight this night view at Paranal : the radiant, reddish plane of the Milky Way, smouldering on the horizon, and an 8.2-metre VLT Unit Telescope, along with a 1.8-metre Auxiliary Telescope, standing firmly on the ground.

With the first day of spring arriving this weekend so do our popular night programs.  From Full Moon Hikes to Creatures of the Night and Laser Guided Star Tours, our night programs are a great way to connect with nature in an entirely different way.

The night adventures begin Wednesday, March 23 from 7:45 – 9:45 p.m., with the Full “Crow” Moon Hike. Volunteer Naturalists will celebrate the seasonal and nocturnal changes in the landscape as they weave together stories about night ecology, moon lore, history and nature.

And mark your calendars now for April 9 when we host the first Laser Guided Star Tour of the year from 8:30 – 10:30 p.m. Guests are invited to come watch constellations of scorpions, bears, dolphins and mythological characters come alive as an interpreter shares ancient dreams and laser beams in Bernheim’s night sky.

All Bernheim at Night programs are $10 for members and $12 for non-members. We meet at the Garden Pavilion unless otherwise noted in the event description.

Registration and payment are required by 4 p.m. on the day prior to the program. Call 502-955-8512 to reserve your spot. Space is limited for our events and we ask that participants do not bring their pets.

We’ll see you under the stars this spring at Bernheim!