Adam Woodhouse crowdfunding with University of Essex

Bringing stargazing to our community

The Astronomy society is a new society this year; we have been setup by a group of amateur astronomers who want to learn more about the universe and the night sky. We are hoping to be able to run stargazing events on campus throughout the year as well as for specific solar or astronomical events such as eclipses, meteor showers or just to give university members a chance to observe the planets through a telescope. Although the university has not had a physics department for many years many of its members are interested in astronomy and want to learn more about how the universe works. We have only been setup this year but we had a fantastic response from fresher’s fair and have over 150 people who have registered an interest in joining the society.

As a university level astronomy society we feel it is necessary for us to have a reasonable telescope which can be used at events we host on or off campus. We hope that this will benefit both students and staff on campus who are interested in astronomy. It will also be used in the local community as we plan to run workshops for local scout groups or schools; we are hoping to work with the university’s V-team for this.

The project will create a community of people who are interested to learn more about astronomy and explore the universe and the night sky. We will also create a friendly community which encourages friendships with those who have similar interests. This project benefits all university members with an interest in astronomy as they can be part of our society and will be able to use the telescope.

Where will the money go?

If we reach our minimum we will be able to purchase the Nexstar NE6 telescope for the society, we will use this for stargazing and on and off campus. If we are able to reach our target we will also be able to purchase accessories and spares to allow us to increase the uses of the telescope such as solar film for solar gazing.