Wayne County Astronomical Society
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PUBLIC VIEWING NIGHTS: Visit us at one of our public viewing nights at the Freedlander Park observatory, held on the fourth Saturday of every month. The next public night will be Saturday, beginning at dusk.
CLUB MEETINGS: Next club meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, at .
MEETING INFORMATION: The club meets bi-monthly on the third Tuesday of even number months (February, April, June, August, October and December). During the warmer months we meet at the observatory in Freedlander Park. Otherwise meetings are held at Montavino Wine Market in the Portage Square Plaza. For details on where we will be holding our next meeting email club secretary Dave Balint n8iw@arrl.net. The meetings start at 7:30pm and all are welcome to attend.
The Wayne County Astronomical Society was originally founded in 1961. In 1963 a 6" Cook refractor, built in England during the closing years of the 19th century, was installed at the Freedlander Park Observatory. The observatory was dedicated on Memorial Day of that year.
Through the efforts of our club members and assistance from the City of Wooster, we were able to raise sufficient funds to refurbish the observatory and install a new telescope, which now forms our club logo. This telescope was a Meade LXD-55 6" refractor with computerized goto. On May 26th, 2003, the 40th anniversary of the original dedication, we rededicated the observatory named the new telescope the "Jack Strater Telescope" in honor of all the work and effort Jack has given to the Society over the years. In spring of 2006, the 6" Meade refractor was replaced with a 12" Meade LX-200 Schmidt-Cassegrain which has become the new "Jack Strater Telescope."
Over the years, though there has been increasing light pollution at the observatory with Wooster's north end shopping centers are nearby, we are still able to a good number of deep-sky objects. For example, Messier object M76 (the Little Dumbell Nebula), at magnitude 10.1 - 11.5, has been viewed with the observatory telescope.
Now that the observatory has been rededicated we have public viewing scheduled on the fourth Saturday of each month, weather permitting. These viewing sessions are open to the public, and everyone is welcome to attend. If you would like to come but can't make the public night, drop us an e-mail us and we will be glad to show you around.
Visit The AstronomyOutreach Network for more information on Astronomy.
