About the CMU Astronomy Club
Carnegie Mellon University's Astronomy Club was founded ~1967 and officially recognized as a campus organization in the 1968-69 Academic year. Since then, our club has flourished. We organize various events and hold regular weekly meetings during the Fall and Spring semesters.
We have acquired a wide range of astronomy equipment over the years including reflecting, refracting, and catadioptric telescopes, binoculars, a range of eyepieces (varying fields of view and magnifications), sun filters, and some photographic equipment.
We have owned, maintained, and operated the Truman Kohman Observatory on top of Scaife Hall since 1986. It's named in honor of the late professor of chemistry and astronomy, who worked on the Manhattan Project and taught at CMU from 1948 to 1990. We go out to this observatory when conditions permit, and point our telescopes at anything we find interesting. Usually, we look at the moon, planets, nebulas, and star clusters.
We have organized trips to the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in southern West Virginia, the Allegheny Observatory in Pittsburgh, Mingo Creek and Wagman Observatories (operated by AAAP) and gone camping in rural locations for better viewing conditions (less light pollution, for instance at Baker Trail in the Crooked Creek Lake area).
In the Spring semester, Astronomy Club also participates in the CMU tradition of Spring Carnival. We build a booth (in the "Blitz" or small booth category) on Midway.
For news & updates see our Facebook page.