Our Evansville Astronomical Society Connection
The Evansville Museum and Evansville Astronomical Society have worked together for over 70 years. With this organization’s volunteerism and support, the Museum has been able to present a variety of astronomy related programming including the family activity filled Astronomy Day and regular public star and planet watches on the Virginia & John D. Schroeder Plaza in front of the Museum. The two institutions have collaborated to make the study of astronomy important to southern Indiana through the Society’s Wahnsiedler Observatory and the Museum’s Koch Immersive Theater & Planetarium.
The Evansville Astronomical Society traces its start to the late 1940s; at a time when the Evansville Public Museum (the precursor to the Evansville Museum) was located its the now razed location at the corner of Court and Second Street in downtown Evansville. The 216 N.W. Second Street location not only housed our earliest collections, but it also served as a convenient meeting place for area astronomy aficionados. In the late 1940s, an Astronomy Section of the Museum formed. Steered by the formidable community leader, philanthropist and astronomy enthusiast R. Malcom Koch, members joined this group to advance their interests in telescope making, and the study of meteorites, eclipses, planetary observing and space exploration. Koch edited and published a newsletter called Astronomy Notes, which was mailed free of charge to anyone in the area interested in astronomy. In 1950, when the Museum began publishing a more comprehensive newsletter, astronomy articles and a centerfold sky chart were included.
The Museum opened its first planetarium in 1953. R. Malcom Koch, Museum Board Vice President, was joined by Dr. Ray T. Dufford, who recently had been hired at Evansville College (now the University of Evansville) to offer astronomy programs and form an astronomy club. When the Museum moved to its current Riverside Drive location in 1959, the astronomy club met regularly in a space on our third floor known as Upper River Room. Astronomy Club rosters of the time list about 20 members.
During the ensuing years, the bond between the Museum and the Society has grown. Members of the Society supported the fundraising for not only the 1959 construction of the Koch Planetarium, but also the purchase of a Spitz Star projector in 1974.
From 1966-1979, the Museum housed the Society’s first telescope. In 1980, the organizations celebrated the construction and dedication of the Wahnsiedler Observatory in Lynnville Park, 20 miles northeast of Evansville. The facility was named for Dr. Walter Wahnsiedler (1894-1985), a science and history teacher at Evansville’s Central High School for 23 years. Dr. Wahnsiedler, who chaired the social studies department with the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation, was a founding member of the Evansville Astronomical Society.
As an amateur astronomer myself, when I moved here in 1985 to take the reins of the planetarium and science areas of the Museum, one of the first things that I did was to join the Society. As a 35+ year plus member, I understand how this longtime collaboration has significantly benefited astronomy enthusiasts and both institutions.
Through the efforts of individuals involved in the Evansville Astronomical Society in the 1940s through 1960s, we are able to boast as having Indiana’s first planetarium, an outstanding Observatory, and the Koch Immersive Theater & Planetarium.
2027 will mark the 75th anniversary of our original planetarium. I look forward to celebrating all the accomplishments of our two institutions at that milestone anniversary.