Harry C. Vaughan University of Wyoming Planetarium

The Harry C. Vaughan Planetarium is named in honor of the Windy Ridge Foundation’s owner, who was a professor of meteorology in the Iowa State Department of Geological and Atmospheric Sciences. Vaughan taught courses in meteorology, earth sciences and agronomy, and before teaching at Iowa State, he worked at the Ames Laboratory.

Upon retirement, Vaughan moved to Laramie, Wyo., where he befriended a number of faculty members in UW’s Department of Atmospheric Science. He devoted his time to his love of astronomy and built a personal observatory in his backyard to make his own astronomical observations and also mentored UW students.