Ryerson Astronomical Society

The Ryerson Astronomical Society (RAS) is the University of Chicago's astronomy club. Our club's purpose is to have all humanity (or all University of Chicago students, for starters) observe the celestial luminaries in hushed awe with our antique 6.25" refractor, 10" reflector, and ~60" radio telescope. Our website has information about upcoming club events; details of RAS history; a collection of astrophotographs and RAS photos; the Rchive, a vast index of RAS documents; useful space and astronomy links; and contact information for our members.

RAS activities Winter Quarter 2013

Monday meetings: We meet to hear astronomy lectures from students and faculty every Monday night at 8 PM in Ryerson 358 (the classroom immediately at the top of the main staircase in Ryerson). Here's the schedule:

Date	Speaker	Topic
April 1	Tad Komacek	Impact and Radiogenic Heating of Planetsimals in Early Solar System
April 8	Matt Schaffer	Ptolemy
April 15
April 22	Will Vaughan	Enigmatic Ina-like Lunar feature
April 29
May 6	Prof. Fabrycky	Circumbinary planets
May 13	!Elections! Esteban Zacharzewski	Milky Way
May 20
May 27	Patrick Chen	TBD
June 3	Cark Segan	Cosmos

Ryerson Wednesdays: Every clear Wednesday night from 7:30 to 10:00 PM we have public observing at our Ryerson rooftop observatory (all the way up the spiral staircase opposite Ryerson 358).

Special events: We usually spend a night at Yerkes Observatory in Wisconsin every quarter to observe on the 24" and 41" reflectors. In spring quarter we have a Friday evening trip open to the public. Over 40 people went on the 2010 trip! We also occasionally visit dark-sky sites such as Willow Slough in Indiana.

Trouble finding Ryerson? Here's a map of campus showing the location of Ryerson.

Trouble getting into Ryerson? Try entering through Eckhart and crossing over on the second or third floor. If Eckhart's locked, call our office and observatory at (773) 702-7625 (that's 2-7625 from any campus phone).

History of the RAS

The RAS as a student organization at the University of Chicago has existed since 1952 (when our logbooks begin). Read our constitution here. Our observatory has existed at least since 1900, its beginnings lost to history. We operate a 107 year-old 6.25-inch Petitdidier refractor, along with a modern 10-inch (250mm) f/6 Newtonian, both set on a hundred and ten year old Warner & Swasey mount. The mount is painted blue, the same color as the mount of the great Yerkes 40-inch refractor. More history here.

Carl Sagan was president of the RAS in the 1950s. His signature is in our logbooks: Carl Sagan's signature He used to study in the RAS office. Here's another Carl Sagan entry about Chicago temperatures. (This shaky phrase still appears in modern logbooks, especially in the month of January.)