This past week has been very interesting and exciting.  At the beginning of the week, I attended the STAHR Telescope Training Class.  STAHR is an undergraduate organization, which stands for Student Astronomers at Harvard-Radcliffe. The STAHR club meets in an observatory located at the top of the Science Center, one of Harvard’s main buildings for science classes and labs for undergraduates.  During the class, we received hands-on practice using a telescope and were taught how to use star maps to locate constellations in the night sky. The telescope we used is called the Loomis-Michael Telescope, and it’s quite large!  On this particular night, Jupiter was visible, and we were able to see the color scheme of the planet, as well as four of its moons.

An officer handling the Loomis-Michael Telescope in the observatory.

In addition to the STAHR club meeting, I attended the chess club meeting this week. The chess club traveled to Stamford, Connecticut to compete at a regional prize money tournament. This week, they had an informational meeting where they went over different strategies. Chess club meetings are a low time commitment, usually lasting only an hour or two. After the formal training part of the meeting, we paired up and played several games of chess.

Photo from the Chess Club

This past weekend, the Harvard Tennis Team competed at an invitational event at William and Mary. At the invitational event, four teams competed- William and Mary, University of Maryland BC, George Washington University, and Harvard.

The first team practice at the William and Mary Tennis Center

Each day, our team played another team in the “college format,” which includes 6 singles matches and 3 doubles matches.  On the first day, we faced University of Maryland BC and swept the singles and doubles matches. Then, we played George Washington University and won 4 out of the 6 singles matches and 2 out of the 3 doubles matches. After the matches on the second day, the team had a team dinner in honor of junior Josh Tchan’s birthday. We headed to an Italian restaurant and had a wonderful time. The food was amazing, and it was a great team bonding event.

Tennis Team celebrating Josh Tchan's 20th Birthday.

On the last day, we played William and Mary and won 5 out of the 6 singles matches and all 3 doubles matches. Overall, it was a great tournament to end our fall season. With the fall season over, the number of workouts have decreased. The team will resume official practices in January, and in the meantime, I’ll enjoy the downtime!

Harvard's Doubles Teams competing against William and Mary

After the tournament, the team took a tour of William and Mary’s campus. It was a beautiful day, and the campus was really nice.  We took some photos in front of statues (like tourists do on Harvard’s campus!) and visited some of the shops nearby.

Tennis Team touring William and Mary's campus.

After touring the campus, the team headed to the airport and flew back to Boston. While it was a great trip, I am very happy to back in Boston within the comforts of Harvard’s campus.

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