Stephens Memorial Observatory

I don’t need to tell you the sort of impact the spread of the novel coronavirus has had on plans for, well, just about everything this spring. Around now is when we at Stephens Memorial Observatory would be scheduling and opening to the public for monthly stargazing.

As we noted in a recent post here, a small observatory dome is no place to collect a group of people — a group of any size — when there is a pandemic disease circulating. If you’ve been to one of our Open Nights, you know it gets crowded and loud with not very many people present!

So early on we independently decided to postpone our public openings.

The novel coronavirus is “out there” and circulating. It is foolhardy to believe that after two weeks or so it will simply go away. With no vaccine available, the only true preventative is isolation. So that’s what we’re doing.

Remember this when you think about whether widespread closures are actually needed: The virus that causes COVID-19 appears to spread about as easily as the common cold. But this disease can be much more severe — sometimes deadly. A deadly disease that can be caught and spread as easily as a cold! That’s the reason for current shutdowns of bars, restaurants, and other businesses that bring people together. Think about that, please, as you go about your daily living.

I believe relative isolation will be advised for the general public for some months to come. I enjoy our public nights together under the dome but I don’t want anyone, myself included, to become ill because of our little gatherings. So there’s a very good chance Stephens will not open to the public any time this year.

In the meantime, I’m putting together technologies that will allow us to share either live or recorded live views of astronomical objects from a local telescope. We may also do some video presentations about the observatory and its telescope. I’ll keep you informed about future developments along those lines.

I’ll close here by thanking you for your interest in what we do, and thanking those who are repeat visitors to our humble observatory. Please help stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus and stay well. We’re all in this together and it will take sensible behavior from all of us to get out.

Best wishes and stay healthy,

James Guilford, Director and Janitor
Stephens Memorial Observatory

For trustworthy information about the novel coronavirus, and COVID-19 disease, visit the Ohio Department of Health website: https://odh.ohio.gov/wps/portal/gov/odh/home