Stargazers can help decide tonight if NIU’s Astronomical Society should retain its name or become the first NIU chapter of the National Space Society.

The organization will meet at 6:30 p.m. on the third floor of Davis Hall.

The Astronomical Society has been at NIU for a year and a half and has about 20 members, said Laura Kelly, the society’s president.

The group “was formed as an educational service to generate interest in space and space research,” she said. Members can attend lectures ranging in topics from lunar geology to building telescopes.

The group meets about once a week, said faculty adviser Jay Stravers, an assistant professor of geology who has been with the group since its beginning.

The group also uses the Davis Hall Observatory on clear nights after meetings, Kelly said.

Notoriety is the main advantage of becoming a National Space Society chapter. “We’ll have access to a lot more speakers and field trips that we wouldn’t have” as an NIU group, Kelly said.

Stravers said hundreds of chapters of the National Space Society exist, with groups in Milwaukee, Chicago and the Quad Cities.

While most members of the NIU group are physics, geography, geology and chemistry majors, “we want to expand interest to other people in other majors as well,” said Kelly, a double major in physics and geology.

“People can learn an awful lot and get involved. Since this is a beginning organization, there’s a lot of things people can learn.

One of the most fascinating space attractions Kelly said she has seen is the rings of Saturn, a planet located nearly 800 million miles from the Earth and 735 times the Earth’s volume.

Growing up in the Midwest, away from the glare of the city, “the night sky was something that was quite attractive,” Stravers said, explaining his interest in space.