The evening light fades away over the horizon as dusk turns to dark. One by one, bright specs of light begin to pop up across the entire night sky. Stars, thousands of them, shadow the intensity of the moon that dimly lights the earth beneath.

Over hundreds of years, scientists, philosophers and astronomers have studied the mysteries of what’s above. Even with the knowledge they have gathered, the stars and beyond is mostly left to the wonders of the human imagination.

The Ashland University astronomy club gives students the chance to discuss their thoughts on space and explore each other’s creative minds. 

“The astronomy club does a lot of different things, but mostly we meet and just talk about space, constellation, whatever we kind of want to,” Ellie Richardson, treasurer of the club, said.

The club, in its third year of existence, has roughly twenty members that actively participate in meetings held on the first and last Tuesday of every month from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m.

“We spend time during meetings learning about current events in space and watching funny YouTube videos about extraterrestrial theories on occasion,” Madeline Worcester, secretary of the club, said.

Open to anyone who is interested, the astronomy club consists of many people who are not just science majors. Some events that the club hosts draw interest from other student groups across campus.

“We do a bunch of art events where we will create a live module of the solar system as well as drawing your own constellations,” Richardson said. “It’s so fun because everyone comes from different backgrounds.” 

The arts and crafts event will take place this October in Redwood Hall with the creation of the solar system. An exact date has not been set for this upcoming event.

Becoming a member of the astronomy club is as easy as just showing up to one of the scheduled meetings and showing interest in the group. President of the club, Jared Metz, is trying to draw attention to the club and encourages anyone who enjoys looking up to the stars to come by and see what the astronomy club is all about.

“With the students here, we try to inform them on constellations and things you can see because there is not an astronomy class here to take,” Metz said.

Without a class that revolves around the study of stars and constellations, the astronomy club focuses on offering students around campus the chance to explore new interests that were not available before. 

“The astronomy club is very educational,” Worcester said. “It gives students who have little experience with stars or outer space the chance to learn more. In college, we focus so heavily on majors without always fostering other hobbies. If we can give students a place to learn about space even if they can’t integrate it into their major specifically, I think that is really beneficial to the community.”

The club already had its first event of the fall semester with a nighttime stargazing event. On September 6th, the club and anyone who was interested sat out at the campus quad with their own blanket to look at constellations.

“It gets a different kind of group together,” Richardson said. “You are meeting different people in this friendly, funky environment.”

Star Maps were handed out to help see constellations above. Additionally, the astronomy club encourages the use of the app SkyViewLite to see stars as well.

“I think it is really cool when you are outside on a nice, summer night and you look up and can see these constellations and point them out,” Metz said. “That’s what I like, and I try to show that to other people.”