With the telescope and binocular equipment PFLASA purchased last year we’ve been able to host 5 night observations through the year around Austin as well as multiple lunar observations during school for astronomy students and any LASA student who is interested. At these observations students actually get to see the objects we study in class which gives a much better sense of the scale and practicality of observing our universe. The new Celestron telescope allows students with minimal observation experience to simply pick off a screen what they want to look at. The binocular mount allows for simple and fast spotting that is the same regardless of the height of the viewer. With our new equipment our observations are bigger, more hands on, accessible, and student friendly. I and the astronomy club are working to incorporate astrophotography and photometry into the observations in the future, without this equipment neither would be possible. Ultimately astronomy is a lot more interesting at night than during the day and i’m so happy we can offer this to our students now with the help of PFLASA.
– Ellen Owens, LASA Sci-Tech & Astronomy teacher





