History of the Astronomical Society of Harrisburg:

This is the fifth in a series of articles on the history of The Astronomical Society of Harrisburg. The format of the first several reports resembled the format of minutes taken during the meeting. This was to emphasize the process that was necessary to establish the Society. Now the format reverts to more of a story prose.

The newly formed organization lost no time in searching the vicinity for places to visit. George Schriver was appointed Chairman at the May 1955 meeting thus paving the way for future activities. The May program was taken over by President Groom who spoke on planets and nebulae aided by slides and film strips which were provided by Mr. Jones of the State Museum. Thirty five members visited the Franklin Marshall College observatory on the 23rd of May. The visit was arranged by John M. Cavanaugh, curator of astronomy and director of the North Planetarium. Dr. Cavenaugh provided many lectures to the Society from time to time and was the main speaker at the observatory dedication on 3 December 1968.

By October [1955], the Society had not grown much from the original 35 members. However, the treasury had grown to a whopping $60! Speakers at each meeting usually were recruited from the membership. At the September meeting the Society went far a field to get Herbert Williams from the Spitz Laboratories to speak on "Astronomy in Your Neighborhood."

Number one year rolled to an end and the Society made plans for the first anniversary banquet. It was held at Eichelberger's House in the Woods on the Carlisle Pike. Charles (Chuck) LeRoy of the Pittsburgh Society was the main speaker. Sixty attended to hear Chuck tell them that man would be in [a] satellite orbiting earth within ten years and would travel to the planets by the year 2000. He also spoke of future teams of amateur astronomers being set up to report on visual observations of the satellites which would, some day, be placed into orbit by the United States. Or Russia!