The sun sets Tuesday over Raquette Pond in Tupper Lake, as seen through a camera posted at the Municipal Park through a partnership with the Wild Center nature museum. (Photo courtesy of wildcenter.org)

TUPPER LAKE — People around the world now have the chance to see the sun set over Raquette Pond, sharing the view Tupper Lakers see every evening.

Along with a Wild Center partnership that placed interpretive and interactive displays along the water’s edge, a sunset camera, which updates photos to the center’s website every minute or so, has been installed facing west over the pond.

The view is one Tupper Lake residents treasure as such clear positioning for a sunset is not common everywhere in the Adirondacks. It was this view that the Wild Center’s Executive Director Stephanie Ratcliffe saw regularly as she left work on her way to Shaheen’s supermarket.

“It gets people from outside the area to see the beauty of Tupper Lake,” Mayor Paul Maroun said.

The vibrant sunsets over Mount Arab are now beamed across the internet, sharing the view with those who have never seen it and giving wandering residents a piece of home in the familiar sight.

A year-long contest, sponsored by the Wild Center and the Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism, lets viewers submit screenshots of sunsets over social media using the hashtag #tuppersunset. The photo judged the most stunning will be announced as the winner.

The sunset camera is one of five live cameras the Wild Center has set up on its website, including one at the summit of Whiteface Mountain, one in a turtle exhibit at the center and two others which can be operated to look around the main building and the Wild Walk.

When the Wild Center housed broadband internet hardware in the basement of its facility, it found it had enough to give away.

“It was so much broadband we couldn’t use it all,” Ratcliffe said.

The center’s broadband hooked up the school district as it goes through construction, covering everything from the L.P. Quinn Elementary School to the Civic Center. The Civic Center beams Wi-Fi to the Municipal Park, powering the park with Wi-Fi and allowing the addition of the live feed camera. The park’s Wi-Fi feeds the camera as well as any park-goer in range, seeing plenty of use during Tupper Lakes festivals.

The camera also sees wide use, based on its reception when it is not working. Calls come into the Wild Center from across the country, notifying staff that the view is not making it to computer and smartphone screens.

“People long for the North Country and the Adirondacks,” the Wild Center’s IT expert Phil Wagschal said. “This is a way for them to get a slice.”

Utilizing technology to display nature is something the Wild Center specializes in. The buildings use designs and products to receive Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification and the interactive Planet Adirondack shows Earth’s weather patterns in near real time. The Wild Center demonstrates how technology can help people learn about nature so they can appreciate it better.