Hello!
Welcome to our little corner of the interweb. The League of Astronomers is a club at the University of Washington that seeks to both promote and explain the cosmos to others (and ourselves!). To this end, we hope to do various activities such as campus star parties and sidewalk astronomy events.
Our other goal is to improve the undergraduate astronomy experience here in the department. This includes increasing ties between the undergrads and the graduate students, helping newer students get started in the major, and providing information and advice on getting research, publishing, and applying to grad school.
We also enjoy a bit of relaxation and have already had a number of successful movie nights to that end, replete with pizza, pop, and even some homemade cake (thanks Shannon!). We hope to continue this trend in the future, and expand it.
Meetings:
Spring quarter finds us meeting on Thursdays at 2:30 pm in the reading room (PAB B356A). We hope to see you there!
Upcoming Activities:
Our first movie night of the quarter is already in planning. Look for a web survey coming your way in the near future. Yay!
Future Activities:
Here's a quick idea some of what we hope to do.
Merchandising:
The League is investigating the selling of various goods at various events and venues. For example, coffee, cookies, bandannas, and t-shirts(?), at
TJO
(or anywhere else on campus) or perhaps a bake sale.
Sidewalk Astronomy:
Setting up a telescope or two on the HUB lawn or quad to let people look at the sky. Could be done at night or during the day, announced or unannounced. For the nighttime runs, perhaps waiting for a fortuitous alignment of the heavens would be best. "Ask an Astronomer" could also play a part in this.
Resources:
Sidewalk Astronomy
Star Parties:
This would involve both going to star parties locally and abroad (eg. table mountain), and taking what we learn from those to throw our own here at the campus.
Local Star Parties:
SAS Green Lake
,
SAS Paramount Park
Join!?
If you would like to join our ranks, or are just interested in some more information, drop us a line at rrlyrae at u.washington.edu , and we'll get back to you just as soon as we can.