Blog entry • 15/08/2025

by John Ray • 15 Aug 2025

Welcome to www.LUAstro.space! You may be wondering, why do a blog entry on something that everyone who's reading this blog will clearly already know about. Good question. I just thought it would be a good first entry, I suppose. Anyway. As you can probably tell already, this site is pretty new as of the time of writing. I'm still working on the odd bug here and there, but for the most part, I think it works pretty well. In this blog entry, I'll be discussing some of the benefits and plans to the site.

So, what are the benefits to this site? I'm sure you can think of a lot of them already, but firstly, it's good for continuity. When I was making the Exec page for this site I struggled to find any records about the Society at all from before 2022. That's only 3 years ago! Details about events, connections to other Astronomy Societies, past members, and all sorts of things can quickly be lost. Having a website maintains a good continuity for LUAstro, and helps ensure that new Execs can build on previous work, and not just accidentally forget about it.

Secondly, coding. Coding is pretty fun, and I've been doing a fair bit of it recently anyway. Making another website is good HTML & CSS practice, which is pretty nice, so there's that personal aspect too, and my hope is that it will be good practice for future members as well. The University of York Astronomy Club has a "Website Maintenance and Development Executive" who's in charge of maintaining their website. Perhaps having a similar Exec role of our own would be good to give some Lancaster students a bit more web development experience?

Lastly, it's perfect to show new members. At the time of writing, I'm thinking of things that would be good for outreach, Open Days, and for Freshers' Fair - and this website is ideal. By having everything of note in one easily-accessible place, new members can instantly get a better sense of everything we do; from the exact photos we've taken and who's taken them, to the history of the Society, to how to join and what merchandise we have available. Previously, like most societies at Lancaster, we've relied on Social Media (mainly Instagram & Discord) to do this. We'll still be using them, of course, but my hope is that the site will simply just make things easier in the long-run. Hopefully, future Execs agree with this, and decide to keep it going.

Currently, the website has 6 main pages. An Astrophotography page, a Store page, a Newsletters page, a Blog page, an Exec page, and an About Us page. I have plans to turn the Astrophotography page into a library of sorts - with all of our members' best photos from over the years all there in an easily navigable format. The Store page can be updated for future merchandise, and gives us a lot more room for descriptions and details than the LUSU site would ever permit. The Newsletters and Blog pages act functionally the same; they can both be used as a more universal alternative to the Discord and Instagram pages, and, again, give future Execs more room for creativity. Finally, the Exec and About Us pages are great to let other non-LU societies know about what we do. All in all, there are lots of plans for this site, and I look forward to seeing what ideas future members have too!

In video games, software, etc. sometimes things called "Easter Eggs" are added. These are basically just secret jokes & puns (not chocolate eggs!) that the creator has added in for the fun of it. I've put some on this site, too. Some of them include:

• How clicking beside the header image creates some bouncing DvD-like stars! Go ahead and try!
• How typing "Cheese" in the Astrophotography search bar will return images of the Moon!
• And maybe some more that you don't know about :)

Anyway, thanks for reading! Or skipping to the end if you've done that! I hope you enjoy the website, and clear skies!

John Ray • 15 Aug 2025