"Night Sky Heritage at the Gateway Arch National Park"

An eight-minute, immersive film on how light pollution impacts our view of the night sky at the Gateway Arch National Park

View Our Press Release on the Film

Virtual Reality Film

The Missouri Chapter of the International Dark-Sky Association (“IDA Missouri”) released a virtual reality film entitled “Night Sky Heritage at the Gateway National Park”. The eight-minute, immersive experience provides a 360-degree panoramic view of the night sky above the grounds of the Gateway Arch National Park.  The loss of our night sky heritage is illustrated in terms of the Bortle Scale, a nine-level numeric scale that provides a consistent standard for comparing skies with differing levels of light pollution. Viewers can seamlessly pan the night sky in all directions as if standing on the grounds of the Gateway Arch National Park.

The film is a creation of Bentley Ousley, film maker, computer programmer, composer and musician from Kansas City, Missouri, and is narrated by Dr. Vayujeet Gokhale, Associate Professor of Physics, Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri.  Over the past decade, Ousley has worked extensively with immersive film and ambient music compositions, one of which earned him the Grand Prize in the Warner Brothers Pictures’ “Inspiring the Future” competition.  Gokhale has spearheaded IDA Missouri’s program to measure sky brightness in Missouri. 

View Film

INSTRUCTIONS:

Viewing the film requires a device with a browser and internet connection.  Click the YouTube start arrow to begin the film.  Use your mouse to move the screen to look in different directions or, for many mobile devices with GPS, move your device in different directions to pan the night sky.   

For more information about how to maximize your VR/360 experience, click here.