
Astronomy Club, formerly known as the Townsend Harris Astronomic Association, offers students a chance to pursue their passions for space and encourages them to explore its mysteries.
Sophomore and treasurer Emerson Lin said, “The purpose of this club is to spread our love and passion for STEM and astronomy, as we have found that there wasn’t any other way to learn and explore astronomy in the school.”
The club meets biweekly on Wednesdays in the library and introduces students to a variety of topics within Astronomy, ranging from cosmology to the theory of general relativity. It also matches with the school’s motto, Ad Astra per Aspera, through hardship to the stars. Co-President and senior Xavier Murphy said that another goal of the club is to “debunk common misconceptions about astronomy.” Club advisor Bianca Bonilla said that she “just [wants] everyone to have fun.”
Many of the members do already have prior experience with Astronomy, but the club’s leadership still tries to make each meeting welcoming and beginner-friendly. Freshman Urja Shrestha said, “The presentations aren’t complicated and can be understood with a basic level understanding of physics and math.”
Urja also said she believes the club is unique because “club members who are committed can arrange days to present their own slides on the phenomenon they want.” One presentation Urja did was on Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time, a book exploring physics and the cosmos.
Co-President and sophomore Adrian Cheung said,“I first joined in my freshmen year because I always watched YouTube videos with Neil DeGrasse Tyson lecturing about astronomy.”
Senior Isabella Chow said that she was inspired to join the club after watching Carl Sagan’s PBS series Cosmos. She said that “[it] was [her]favorite TV program to watch when [she]was a child.”
Although it has a dedicated following, the club faces low membership and infrequent meetings. According to Urja, this is due to the club’s lack of exposure: “I know there’s so many people in this school who are passionate about astronomy or topics close to that, but they don’t know about the club.”
However, Adrian mentioned that because the Astronomy Club is “a smaller club compared to others… it makes organizing the members a lot easier.” He also said that “scheduling conflicts is definitely one of our obstacles, as we rely on everyone to attend.” Despite the club attendance conflicts, Xavier said, “We still have a fair amount of people show up for the meetings, which is pretty good.”
“I would definitely recommend this club. I know that there’s always a lot of freshmen every single year who are interested in different things, even niche topics within science. And I think that astronomy club would definitely make a lot of those people interested,” said Isabella.