Night at Devils Tower

Stars appear through passing clouds above the Devils Tower in Wyoming. At the upper right of the mountain is the red emission nebula known as the Lagoon or M8. Near the horizon at lower is the pair of stars representing the tail of Scorpius with the star cluster M7 at their left. The mountain was the feature landmark for the alien landing in the famous 1977 movie “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”. It is also the very first American national monument (established in 1906). Devils Tower is a monolithic volcanic neck located in the Black Hills in northeastern Wyoming. It rises dramatically 386 m above the surrounding terrain. Wally Pacholka/Astropics.com