Welcome to the Astronomy Club of Akron (ACA) web page. The purpose of the ACA is to further an interest in and to promote the study of the subject of astronomy through the use of lectures, discussion groups, publications, programs and other activities.

The ACA will educate the general public through monthly programs. These programs, lectures and events cover the planets, solar/lunar observing, comets showers, deep sky objects. The ACA activities provide opportunities for its general club members to get together and take part in a variety of general astronomy related matters.

Membership is open to anyone with an interest in astronomy. No equipment is necessary and no knowledge is needed. There is no age limit. Club members meet on the 4th Friday of every month at 8 a.m. at the Kiwanis Hall in Portage Lakes. During the meeting, a one-hour talk will be on astronomy, space exploration or weather. The date of the meeting will change if the 4th Friday is part of a holiday weekend. Check the calendar, view the most recent newsletter, send emails or call the number listed on our home page if in doubt. The ACA publishes a monthly newsletter The Night Sky, which contains information on the coming meetings, observing sessions and articles by members.

Club dues are $30 a year for adults (18 and over), $15 for juniors (12 to 17). The family only needs $40 a year. Welcome to our club and you can call 18663399783 to find more information about us.

John D. Rockefeller was America’s first billionaire who founded Standard Oil Company in 1870, which eventually became a giant in the oil industry. Rockefeller’s leadership in Standard Oil brought him great wealth as well as unfavorable opinions, as many opposed Rockefeller’s business practices. Though many were critical of Rockefeller, few could devalue his philanthropic (慈善的) efforts, which led him donate $540 million (more than $5 billion today) during his lifetime to charity causes.

Though a billionaire, Rockefeller lived a relatively simple life, rarely attending the theater or other events typically attended by his peers. Since childhood, he had been told to give to church and charity and Rockefeller had routinely done so. However, Rockefeller’s enormous wealth and success made him a target of journalists, reform politicians and others who viewed him as a symbol of greed and criticized the methods with which he’d built his kingdom. With a damaged public image to improve, Rockefeller began to give away millions of dollars.

In 1896, 57-year-old Rockefeller turned over the day-to-day leadership of Standard Oil though he held the title of president until 1911, and began to focus on philanthropy. He had already contributed to the establishment of the University of Chicago in 1890, giving $35 million over the course of 20 years.

While doing so, Rockefeller also founded the Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research (now Rockefeller University) in New York in 1901. Within their laboratories, causes, cures, and various manners of prevention of diseases were discovered? including the cure for meningitis (脑膜炎) and the identification of DNA as the central genetic matter.

A year later, Rockefeller established the General Education Board. In its 63 years of operation, it distributed $325 million to American schools and colleges. In 1913, Rockefeller created the Rockefeller Foundation, with his son John Jr. as presidents to foster the well-being of men and women around the world. Through John D. Rockefeller’s philanthropic acts, the oil titan educated and saved an untold number of lives and aided medical and scientific advancement.

What Elon Musk has built on the remote mudflats (泥滩)at the southern tip of Texas is astonishing: huge metal structures, fuel storage tanks? and a silver rocket-all fronted by neon letters that spell out “Starbase”.

But can SpaceX coexist with the original feathered inhabitants on the lower Gulf coast? Environmentalists from Brownsville to Washington, D. C. are protesting his ambitious vision to build, test and launch next-generation rockets in this fragile ecosystem.

“It’s 24/7. The lights are really bright out here at night. I wouldn’t want to be nesting near any of this if I were a bird, “says Stephanie Bilodeau, a conservation bird biologist with a nonprofit program. “It doesn’t look like much, these vast mudflats she says, scanning the wetland, “but it’s undeniably important for shorebirds. The best habitat is right here.”

Less than 100 yards behind her, a massive heavy-lift crane(吊车) is preparing the site for the next test launch. When Musk broke ground here in 2014, the fact that he was sandwiched between the Lower Rio Grande National Wildlife Refuge and a group of local residents didn’t cause alarm. Now it does.

His original plans were to test and launch the slimmer Falcon 9 rocket a dozen times a year to launch satellites into orbit. But his plans have expanded--not surprising for Musk, who also owns the electric car company, Tesla. Today, he’s using this limited area of land to build and test his Super Heavy-Starship model. “Anytime you have progress, there’s nothing that doesn’t come with some downside/5 Musk told the local official.

In April, NASA awarded SpaceX a $2.9 billion contract to build a Starship to take astronauts to the moon, though the contract has since been put on hold due to environmental concerns. SpaceX activities are partly supervised by Cameron County in Texas. The top elected official there, County Judge Eddie Trevino Jr., says they both should pay closer attention to private space company. “We probably weren’t doing what we should have been, so I understand the public’s concern and we’re trying to do a better job going forward.”