Another great sunset image with the McDonald Observatory and the Davis Mountains in west Texas in view. The high and dry peaks of the Davis Mountains make for some of the darkest and clearest night skies in the region and provide excellent conditions for astronomical studies but also have some nice sunsets and sunrise. We capture this sunset while we were waiting for the stars to appear. It seem like the sky was never going to get dark but once it did it was very dark. The McDonald Observatory is an astronomical observatory located near the community of Fort Davis in Jeff Davis County, Texas, United States. The observatory is managed by the University of Texas. The facility is located on Mount Locke in the Davis Mountains of West Texas, with additional facilities on Mount Fowlkes, about 8 miles away. . Included in this image is a close up of the Otto Struve Telescope on top of the summit of Mt. Locke, dedicated in 1939. It was the first large telescope built at the observatory and next to it is the The Harlan J. Smith Telescope that was completed in 1968. Today at the McDonald Observatory is reasearch into a wide variety of topics, including planetary systems, stars and stellar spectroscopy, astronomy and many other topics.

McDonald Observatory at sunset as the clouds light up with these colorful pinks and oranges over the tops of the two observatory in the skies over the Davis Mountains.