The RBHS Astro club will host “CAPCOM GO!,” a planetarium show and fundraiser open to the general public on Friday, March 13 at 5 p.m., and the following Friday, March 20. “CAPCOM GO!” describes the Space Race in the 1950s between the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and the U.S. Entry to the program is $5 per person, and the money raised from the event will go to the Astro club and Astronomers Without Borders, an organization dedicated to spreading interest in astronomy both nationally and internationally. Astronomers Without Borders provides resources to support astronomical projects across the globe. 

Junior Tia Rawat, co-founder and co-president of Astro club, said they chose to donate to Astronomers Without Borders because it promotes public interest and understanding in outer space, similar to what Astro club hopes to achieve. A portion of the money earned will go to specific expenditures within the club. 

“Most high schoolers don’t get a chance to visit the planetarium, which is unfortunate as people are truly missing out on a unique visual experience,” Rawat said. “Therefore, we hope to open up this opportunity to the rest of the school and hopefully gather funds in the process.”

In addition to the Astro club’s screening, the planetarium will host a separate series of shows on Saturday, March 14, also open to the community. Planetarium director and sponsor for Astro Club Meaghann Stoelting will show “Earth’s Wild Ride,” on Saturday at 10 a.m., a program teaching elementary school children about the Earth from the perspective of a family on the Moon. At 11:15 a.m., “To World’s Beyond,” will premiere, a more advanced film for high schoolers describing the solar system, and at 12:30 p.m., “Secret of the Cardboard Rocket,” another movie geared toward younger viewers, will show. All three shows are currently sold out.

Within the RBHS community, Rawat started Astro Club with fellow junior Gracie Anne Fraunfelder in February after they expressed interest in space and the RBHS planetarium’s resources. They both continuously visited the planetarium during their free blocks in order to ask questions and converse with Stoelting and decided to share their passion with the school by starting Astro club in February this year. Fraunfelder said the club explores topics within the field of astronomy, and they want to delve deeper into the subject throughout the rest of the year. 

“So far we have talked about how we have hurt the astronomical environment [through] light pollution, [and] we learned about the history of zodiacs and the different types of galaxies,” Fraunfelder said. “We’re hoping to [study] comets, meteors and star magnitude in the future.”

Through the fundraisers, Fraunfelder said the club wants to purchase a telescope, in order to further the resources in the planetarium. Currently, the club uses the planetarium’s starball, run by Stoelting, to watch night sky tours. The starball projects a view of the stars in the night sky through a special lamp from within the shell. Stoelting, who came to RBHS in April, 2019, also organizes regular monthly shows to generate more public interest. She said though several of the planned programs in January were cancelled due to inclement weather, tickets for recent shows in March were within a week of their release. 

“I started an emailing list for the planetarium just because there was so much interest and there’s already over 800 people in the list,” Stoelting said. “Now, I’m trying to get more public shows, I’m buying planetarium shows and I’ve also been doing a lot more talks in the planetarium. There’s just a lot more advertising.”

Stoelting said she hopes different types of programs, such as hands-on experiments and informative talks from students from the University of Missouri—Columbia, can be offered at RBHS. She said the Astro Club might be the start of future community involvement with the planetarium. Rawat said she hopes the appeal will grow at a school level as well, through opportunities such as Astro club. The astronomy program at RBHS will develop through the fundraising money.

“We hope that, through the Astro club, we can expand people’s interests and knowledge of what lies beyond our world,” Rawat said. “And hopefully this month, the weather will be nice enough for us to start taking night trips to go stargazing.”

Have you been to the RBHS planetarium yet? Let us know in the comments below.