The night sky holds many wonderful and awe inspiring objects from planets and comets to nebulas and galaxies. The goal of Ponca City Astronomy is to interest people in astronomy and inform people about the events going on.

Richard Jones is the de facto president of the club and got his start in astronomy from a young age.

“My first association [with astronomy] went back to when I was 10, living on 13th Street here in Ponca City,” said Jones. “Back then you could see the Milky Way since there was not as much light pollution.”

In the air force, Jones was trained as a geodetic surveyor. A part of his job involved using the stars for determining latitude and longitude, and using Polaris for determining directions.

After Jones retired he moved to Las Cruces, New Mexico. While going to New Mexico University, Jones met Clyde W. Tombaugh, the man who discovered Pluto in 1930 and began to get back into astronomy again.

Jones joined the Astronomical Society of Las Cruces (ASLC). When Tombaugh passed away, many left the club bringing membership from 85 to 25 people. Jones had asked they make him president of the club and he made changes that swelled membership to 110 people, including the instigation of Sidewalk Astronomy events and courses to help people understand astronomy.

When Jones moved to Ponca City and set up the club two people showed up at the first meeting, but at the second meeting Bob Zehr and Michael Vanderburg attended. Vanderburg suggested that Jones talk to the RecPlex about having a meeting place there.

Jones started holding Sidewalk Astronomy at the RecPlex as well as at the Lake Ponca campground.

Eventually, Ponca City Astronomy would like to hold a Backyard Astronomy course to teach people about what kind of telescopes to get and how to find celestial objects. Ponca City Astronomy has a website at pcastronomy. org and a Facebook page which is managed by Bob Zehr, who also got a start in astronomy at a young age.

“I got started in astronomy when my dad woke us up in the middle of the night in winter and got us in the back of the pickup to watch a meteor shower,” said Zehr.

The Facebook page has pictures of the many celestial objects that Ponca City Astronomy has observed.

After the pandemic dies down and the weather gets warmer, the club wants to do Astronomy 101 classes.

Ponca City Astronomy can be contacted via Facebook or by email at astro74501@gmail.com.