The Ohio Wesleyan Astronomy Club was founded in the early 90's by students interested in becoming part of our university's rich astronomical tradition.
Part of this tradition involves restoring facilities and equipment from states of disrepair. In 1998, we "discovered" a darkroom in the Student Observatory's basement. By some estimates, it hadn't been used as a darkroom in excess of thirty years. We cleared, mopped, scrubbed, washed, and painted the whole room. Consequently, the astronomy club now has a working black & white darkroom (although no current members know how to use it).
Currently, we are restoring the observatory annex and its telescopes to working condition. The annex houses a 16" dobsonian, a permanently mounted commit finder, and several families of squirrels. Although, we've made contact with the squirrels, neither of the telescopes have seen use for a couple years.
An additional goal for 2002-2003 involves using some of the physics/astronomy department's astrophotography equipment and posting some pretty pictures on this webpage.
Hopefully, we'll have some new pictures after our next regularly scheduled visit to Perkin's Observatory. These trips to Perkins are a nice change of pace from our weekly meetings at the student observatory.
The only requirement for Astronomy Club membership is an interest in astronomy. Only a few of us are astronomy majors or minors, the bulk of our membership represents a broad range of academic backgrounds. We try to make the club as fun and engaging as possible. If you have an interest in astronomy, you are welcome to attend any of our scheduled meetings or email us at starweb@cc.owu.edu.