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Goshen College

May Term Astronomy Class

May 12, 2009

Date of Event: May 12, 2009
Photos taken by: David Zwier

Professor of Physics John Ross Buschert took his May Term Descriptive Astronomy Class to Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center for an overnight field trip of stargazing on May 12.
Buschert and the 35 students were joined by Systems Operation Technician Steve Shantz, retired local pastor Ron Kennel and junior physics major and assistant Tina Peters.
The night was very clear and cold.
The six telescopes that they used ranged in size from a 14 inch down to a 3 inch. They also had several sizes of binoculars to look at various objects, including star clusters, galaxies and binary stars.
Students enjoyed excellent views of Saturn and three of its moons.
Students finally went to bed around 1 a.m. and then roused at 5 a.m. to see Jupiter with its four moons and Venus in a crescent phase.
Merry Lea’s Farmstead at sunrise.
A waxing gibbous moon gave spectacular views of craters in the telescopes.