By Ashley Foy

CCSU students from the Earth Science 278 Observational Astronomy class were staring into the galaxy last week as they shared their capstone project with the community the during the four day “Swinging on a Star” event in Copernicus Observatory.

The event was free as well as open to the public and brought in several hundred visitors over a four-day span, despite cloudy weather. The students who ran the event demonstrated mastery of telescopes and were well informed on the astronomical objects which were being viewed, including Jupiter and its moons, the seven sister star cluster and the Andromeda Galaxy.

This event is one of many that the CCSU planeterium and observatory offers. More similar events can be found at www.ccsu.edu/astronomy and the class is offered every fall. The project was put together by a number of CCSU students including Rocky Boussias, Carly Browning, Mary-Jo Callaghan, Allison Devoe, Paola Evangelista, Eileen Gonzalez, Alyssa King, Christopher Kyle, Justine Lore, Keith McGinnis and Felicia Wehr.