Although the Astronomy Club at McLean is not top-ranked nationally, all the students in the club show great enthusiasm and initiative.
“Overall, I think that most of the students who join, join only out of passion for the subject and nothing else,” Brocketti said.
Since most that are in the club have a strong passion for astronomy, there are no problems trying to organize the students. In fact, they actually organize the events themselves and are responsible for utilising the astronomical equipment provided to them.
“Generally the students do everything by themselves, even when in the observatory we’re just around to make sure they don’t break anything,” Diller said.
The club has been student-lead for a long time now, and this year Abra Syed is replacing the previous club president, who graduated last year.
“I saw that the position had opened up” Syed said. “So I took it.”
Although the club president has changed this year, none of the leaders in the club expects to change the plan that was made last year.
“Every year, we aim to organize a skywatch every month,” Diller said. “For the other events, we have a list of events in the area and students choose which ones to plan a trip to.”
The most recent skywatch happened on the Sept 27, but there are plenty more events that they plan to attend. Diller has set up a system that allows for students to choose which events they can go to in smaller groups with friends.
“Unless it is a field trip organized by the club, students as different groups all decide on where to go,” Syed said.
This autonomy provided by Diller and Brocketti provides a great opportunity for astronomy enthusiasts to attend astronomical events of their own choice. Alongside this freedom of choice, the Astronomy Club also provides some of the best Astronomy equipment in Northern Virginia.
“We are the only school in Northern Virginia to have an observatory,” Diller said. “I’d say that is the biggest advantage of joining this club as we have access to a top-notch facility in our observatory.”
It seems that the main reason people are refraining from participating in the Astronomy Club is because there is a misconception that participating in the club would require a lot of work.
“I mean, I always knew we had an observatory here, but I’ve never thought of using it before: the math that might come with using it has always scared me,” sophomore Mohammed Mohammed said.
If you are interested, it does not take much to be fascinated by things that have to do with space.
“There are absolutely no requirements to join the Astronomy Club,” Syed said.
(Transition)
“Two years ago our students were able to meet the head of NASA in D.C.,” Diller said.
There have been many field trips, where the students got to meet the head of NASA, getting to meet astronauts, and even visiting a super fancy observatory in Maryland, and there are many being planned for the future as well.
“Who would’ve thought the Astronomy club does all of this,” Mohammed said. “Attending events and looking through telescopes sounds a lot more fun now.”
Every year the astronomy club has been gaining more and more popularity.
“The astronomy elective has two classes this year compared to one last year,” Diller said.
In the end, life seems to be treating Astronomy Club members very well.
“I think the ability to have multiple options in events to choose from is one of the factors that makes this club great.,” Syed said “One day you do a skywatch, later you decide to go meet former astronauts in D.C., it’s awesome.”