Wahnsiedler Observatory.

Public observatory · Lynnville, Indiana

Wahnsiedler Observatory

Wahnsiedler Observatory is a public observatory in Lynnville, Indiana. It is open to the public. Wahnsiedler Observatory is about 16 km (10 mi) from Green River State Forest, a Bortle Class 4 dark sky place.

Wahnsiedler Observatory in brief

Open to the public
Yes
Bortle class
Not yet rated

Official site

Can you visit Wahnsiedler Observatory? Yes

Evansville Astronomical Society free Star Watches and open houses monthly in warm months; club meets there 3rd Friday 7:30 pm.

A public night at an observatory usually starts at dusk with a short talk, then a line at the eyepiece of the main telescope for the Moon, a planet or a bright cluster, with volunteers' smaller telescopes set up outside. Dress for the night air even in summer: domes are not heated, so the telescope stays at outside temperature. Many nights sell out or cancel for clouds, so check the observatory's site on the day.

Wahnsiedler Observatory
Wahnsiedler Observatory

What Wahnsiedler Observatory observes

Evansville Astronomical Society

How dark the sky is at Wahnsiedler Observatory

Wahnsiedler Observatory has no Bortle rating in the list yet. The scale below shows what each class looks like.

1 mag 8.0 21.99+ 2 mag 7.5 21.89+ 3 mag 7.0 21.69+ 4 mag 6.5 20.49+ 5 mag 6.0 19.50+ 6 mag 5.5 18.94+ 7 mag 5.0 18.38+ 8 mag 4.5 18.00+ 9 mag 4.0
The Bortle scale. Each panel shows the class number, the faintest star the naked eye reaches at the zenith, and the darkest-edge sky brightness reading of that class in mag/arcsec².

Sky brightness and class come from the World Atlas of Artificial Night Sky Brightness (Falchi et al. 2016, CC BY-NC 4.0), with natural skyglow added, at the coordinates below. Research telescopes are often sited on mountains above the haze, so the real sky can be darker than the map suggests.

Wahnsiedler Observatory among the observatories of Indiana

Eagle Creek Park City park Indiana Dunes National Park Shades State Park Tippecanoe River State Park Turkey Run State Park Clark State Forest Ferdinand State Forest Hoosier National Forest Martin State Forest Ravinia State Forest Greene-Sullivan State Forest Harrison-Crawford State Forest Jackson-Washington State Forest Morgan-Monroe State Forest Mountain Tea State Forest Owen-Putnam State Forest Pike State Forest Salamonie River State Forest Selmier State Forest Yellowwood State Forest Deam Lake State Recreation Area Starve Hollow State Recreation Area Beverly Shores Dark Sky Community Charles S. Morris Observatory Morgan-Monroe Observatory Goethe Link Observatory Holcomb Observatory and Planetarium John C. Hook Memorial Observatory McKim Observatory Oakley Observatory Prairie Grass Observatory South Harrison Observatory Ball State University Observatory Kirkwood Observatory Bootleg Fall Star Party (star party) Bootleg Spring Star Party (star party) Wahnsiedler Observatory Lynnville, Indiana Wahnsiedler Observatory Lynnville, Indiana
Dark sky place Research or private observatory Observatory open to the public Star party

Green dots are observatories open to the public, blue dots research or private sites, squares dark sky places; select one for its page. See Indiana observatories for the full list.

The coordinates on this page point to zip 47733 (approximate): 37.997°N, 87.575°W.

Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Open the larger map · Directions. Mountain observatory roads are often gated after dark; go only on a scheduled public night.

Dark sky places, observatories and clubs near Wahnsiedler Observatory

Wahnsiedler Observatory is about 16 km (10 mi) from Green River State Forest, a Bortle Class 4 dark sky place. See Green River State Forest for camping, where to set up and the sky by season.

Nearest dark sky places

PlaceWhereBortleDistance
Green River State ForestKentucky416 km (10 mi)
Pike State ForestIndiana454 km (34 mi)
Ferdinand State ForestIndiana475 km (47 mi)
Shawnee National ForestIllinois384 km (52 mi)
Pennyrile State ForestKentucky4103 km (64 mi)
Sam Dale Lake State Fish and Wildlife AreaIllinois3107 km (67 mi)

Other observatories open to the public within 150 km

  • South Harrison ObservatoryLaconia, Indiana, 142 km (88 mi). One or two public sessions a month: evening sky tour near first-quarter moon and daytime solar open house near third quarter

Astronomy clubs within 150 km

Star parties near Wahnsiedler Observatory

Star partyNearDistanceUsual timing
Bootleg Fall Star PartyHarmon, Illinois438 km (272 mi)Autumn new moon
Bootleg Spring Star PartyHarmon, Illinois438 km (272 mi)Spring new moon
Midsouth StargazeFrench Camp, Mississippi548 km (340 mi)Spring
Green Bank Star QuestGreen Bank, West Virginia679 km (422 mi)Summer

Planning a trip? Astrotourism in Indiana puts the dark sky places, observatories, clubs, star parties, planetariums and science centers of the state on one map, with the best night out worked out.

Wahnsiedler Observatory record

Every value in the observatories dataset for Wahnsiedler Observatory
ID226
NameWahnsiedler Observatory
AddressLynnville Park
CityLynnville
StateIN
Zip47733
CountryUSA
Webhttps://evansvilleastro.org
Publicy
NotesEvansville Astronomical Society
Lat37.99710
Lon-87.57500
LatLonSpotzip 47733 (approximate)
StatusActive
PublicNoteEvansville Astronomical Society free Star Watches and open houses monthly in warm months; club meets there 3rd Friday 7:30 pm
Sourceshttps://evansvilleastro.org/abouteas.htm; https://www.evansvilleastro.org/EAS 2025 Calendar of Events.pdf
ParkID859
ParkKm16.

From the site's observatories dataset (observatories_q426). Distances are computed from the coordinates.