Solar System Ambassadors
Anastasia (Stacy) Welborne
Stacy Welborne is 18 years old and lives in Fowler, Indiana. Despite having cerebral palsy and epilepsy, Stacy has always been enthusiastic about astronomy. Among her earliest memories is the Venus transit in 2012 when a local astronomer projected the transit onto her hand, telling her that only through studying astronomy could she hold the Sun and Venus in her hand at the same time. From that moment on, she was hooked on the stars. Stacy continued star gazing and lunar eclipse viewing whenever she could. She not-so-fondly remembers her mother dragging her out of bed to watch a lunar eclipse at moon-set at the same time as a sunrise or getting up at 3:00 am to watch a particularly active meteor shower, but she's now glad she did! Stacy's greatest astronomical achievement so far has been watching the 2017 total solar eclipse in TOTALITY in the hills of north-central Tennessee. When she's not stargazing, she enjoys reading, dancing, and space-focused movies.